Page 66 - Reforming Benefits Decision-Making -(updated - August 2021)

only after the claim has been submitted. It should be made a part of the
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application process or added to the to-do list as an explicit choice.
d) When claimants appeal a decision related to a health and disability
assessment to the FTT (SCCS), the Tribunal will often recommend that
the appellant should not be reassessed for a certain number of years. We
were told that claimants are currently being called for reassessment prior
to this time because the system sends out automated notifications that do
not take into account the Tribunal decision. These are not checked by
someone within DWP until the last minute, by which time the claimant
has already suffered significant stress and anxiety at the prospect of
being reassessed. The system should automatically update after the
Tribunal decision is made so that claimants aren’t called unnecessarily
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for reassessments.

Transparency

2.85 One of the biggest issues with the use of automation and artificial intelligence
by the DWP is the lack of transparency. The UN Special Rapporteur on
extreme poverty and human rights found that “the existence, purpose and
basic function of these automated government systems remains a mystery in
many cases fuelling misconceptions and anxiety about them”.
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2.86 Automation does not inherently threaten human rights or the rule of law, but
without more transparency about the development and use of automated
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systems it is impossible to assess its impact. Computers make errors and,
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181 R. Pope, Universal Credit: Digital Welfare (see n. 56 above), p. 53.
182 P. Booth, ‘Work and Pensions Committee Oral evidence: Universal Credit: the wait for first
payment, HC 204’, July 2020, Q 198.
183 P. Alston, ‘Statement on Visit to the United Kingdom’ (see n. 1 above) p. 11.
184 Ibid.
185 As demonstrated by the recent Post Office Horizon scandal. Between 2000 and 2014 736 sub-
postmasters and sub-postmistresses were prosecuted for theft, fraud and false accounting on the basis of
information from the Horizon IT system - an electronic point of sale and accounting system used in
post office branches. Some went to prison, and many were financially ruined. In December 2019 the
High Court found that the Horizon system contained numerous bugs, errors and defects and that there
was a ‘material risk’ that the shortfalls in branch accounts were caused by the IT system (Bates v Post
Office Limited [2019] EWHC 3408 (QB)) In April 2021 the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions
of 39 sub-postmasters, clearing the way for many of the others to challenge their convictions (Hamilton

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