Improvements in payment systems for DWP UK

In a blog post published late last week, Richard Laycock, deputy director of the Department of Labor and Pensions (DWP) platforms, said improvements are being made to the authority’s payment systems. They aim to ensure that the 20 million customers “receive their payments on time”.

“As payment services advance, they must be efficient, modern, fast, scalable, flexible, innovative and available 24/7,”

wrote Laycock.

To keep up with the change, DWP is investigating several technologies, including DLT.

“We are beginning to see the first complete DLT production implementations, such as One Pay FX from Santander. Benefits include reducing the time, costs and failure rate associated with performing transactions, while data is stored in a secure immutable registry ”,

according to Laycock.

Improvements in payment systems

The department is about to renew its payment architecture by introducing it

“The largest set of changes in the way payment schemes in the UK process payments.”

The launch of the new systems is planned for 2021. The DWP will introduce a common standard of payment messaging and consolidate existing schemes. New “overlay” services, including “payment request” and “beneficiary confirmation” will also be added.

Open banking – using open APIs to allow third-party developers to build applications and services around a banking institution – also offers a way to improve the aspects of DWP payment services.

Laycock said:

“I want to consider how we can capitalize on the payment innovations emerging from these trends and how we can influence the new payment architecture to help shape the future of payments across the government.”