§ The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Andrew Smith)From January 2004, the Work and Pensions longitudinal study will link benefit and programme information held by the DWP on its customers, with employment records from the Inland Revenue.
This follows the Employment Act 2002 which introduced new data sharing provisions. This opened the way for the DWP to receive more data on employment from Inland Revenue and use the information for more purposes. The DWP and Inland Revenue have been working together to enable this data sharing to take place and to develop safeguards for the initiative.
The Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study will be used to perform a range of statistical and research analyses, as well as being used for some limited operational purposes, to give the Department further opportunities to evaluate the effectiveness of its businesses. It will, for example:
provide statistics, management information and research on the success of Jobcentre Plus in helping people into work and keeping them in work;help to evaluate individual DWP policies and their impact in the short, medium and long-term;help to ensure that pensioners receive the money they're entitled to;aid in the investigation of benefit fraud; andimprove targeted information and marketing to clients.The DWP have a legal and ethical responsibility to ensure that the Work and Pensions longitudinal study is used appropriately. We have, therefore, developed a set of safeguards around access rights, system monitoring, storage/retention of the information and vetting new uses. Information on this and a full range of the study's uses, has been placed in the Library and on the DWP website at http:/www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/ longitudinal—study/ic—longitudinal—study.asp