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The Department for Work and Pensions is appealing for IT suppliers that could provide “innovative solutions” to address disruption to citizens’ benefits payments.

The DWP makes an average of 2.5 million payments each day, with occasional peaks of eight million, and an annual high of 12 million payments on some days over the Christmas period. Its strategic contingency service is there to address “short- or long-term disruption to the payment of benefits, pensions, and allowances to the department's customers”. 

The future of this service is the subject of an early-engagement exercise, during which the DWP is looking for technology firms to put forward “innovative contingency solutions to enable us to shape our future procurement”.

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Proposed systems must fulfil five key criteria: ensuring citizens receive payments “or appropriate alternative remuneration”; security and resilience to fraud; providing data that can be used for the purposes of audit, reconciliation, and information management; compliance with the rules and formats of UK payment schemes; and the ability to work at a national level, including use by other government departments.

Potential suppliers are invited to send up to two representatives to an “innovation day” event in Manchester on 7 June, where they will be able to make a presentation of up 10 minutes to demonstrate their product or service. The DWP is, at this stage, making no commitment to any procurement activity, but could eventually look at establishing a framework covering several different areas.

“The Supplier Innovation Showcase event seeks to investigate market opportunities and insight in preparation for a potential future procurement for a strategic contingency service,” the DWP said. “The department is willing to consider all innovative solutions, and may be prepared to consider lots.”

Any suppliers wishing to attend the event should email the DWP before 5pm on 31 May.