Here comes another one

[cromwell]

Another government IT scandal that is.
This one concerns His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, and their RTI system.
According to the Spectator:-

"When Universal Credit was introduced to reform and modernise the benefits system in 2013 it needed a data system to drive it. HMRC came up with the solution. The taxman billed its new ‘Real Time Information’ system as the ‘biggest change’ to the tax system since PAYE began in 1944".

All well and good, but the RTI system proved to be faulty. People had their Working Tax Credits stopped - wrongly. One single mother was accused of being married to a 74 year old man, who was actually dead.

The Speccie goes on:-
"At the root of the problem is dodgy data on the earnings of the UK’s 30 million employees. This data is used to calculate 30 million people’s taxes, the benefits of 23 million claimants and the tax liabilities of 1.5 million employers. Often the data arrives late, is incorrect or not captured at all".

So there you go. The acronym GIGO was never wrong - Garbage In, Garbage Out.
It's early days but this looks like another beauty.

[Workingman]

"Often the data arrives late, is incorrect or not captured at all".

So who is supplying these data? The article is not clear. If it is employers then how can that be the fault of HMRC? I might be missing something because the article is abridged unless I register.

[cromwell]

Data comes from employers. Employers were mandated in 2013 to report their workers pay every time they ran payroll. This supports Universal credit payments by providing earnings data.

However:-
"Problems with the RTI system quickly emerged. Automated interventions backed by financial penalties to ensure employers reported earnings records accurately and on time – essential to the proper running of the system – were abandoned after just one outing in March 2014 as soon as the stream was turned on. HMRC’s then head of personal tax acknowledged: ‘We haven’t been able to target them [400,000 automated compliance messages to employers] as sharply as we hoped and they went to people who had complied’"
So they had problems with the application too, besides receiving poor quality data.

So HMRC are receiving data, but using it before they are checking it. A data quality issue which they know they have, but haven't addressed.

eta -Re the working tax credits problem :- "Earnings data had been duplicated within RTI leading HMRC to wrongly terminate thousands of claims".
So more problems within the RTI application.

One example:-"One mum with two kids worked part-time as a school cleaner. She relied on Universal Credit to top up her income. But she’s paid every four weeks rather than on the same day every month. The RTI system doesn’t like that. Once a claim is first set up the assessment dates become fixed. So someone paid every four weeks can end up receiving two payments in one assessment period and having their benefits removed entirely the following month".
That is just poor coding.

There are also problems for FTSE 100 companies, who have had their PAYE liabilities misstated by millions.

[Workingman]

Aye, thanks for that.

So, it appears to be a bit of both - employers and HMRC. 400,000 (legal) compliance messages that were not complied with! A data quality issue it sure is, and a legal one, but how will it be addressed?

An expensive public enquiry, but not paid for by those responsible (employers and HMRC) you can bet. Socialise the costs... again.

The four-week payment excuse is nonsense. I get my OAP every two weeks - 26 times £xx.pp = £ss per annum. I can work it out to pennies per hour, per day, per week. I don't need a bloody computer or spreadsheet to do it. If I can do it so can employers and HMRC.