The consultation paper "21st Century Welfare" says that the IT for Universal Credit "could be built on our existing IT" but it also says there will be two IT systems, one to gather information and one to calculate and pay the Universal Credit.

The IT hurdles are formidable. The White Paper makes it clear that the Universal Credit will be as automated as possible. People will submit their claims on-line, and the computer will asses and award the Universal Credit automatically. Staff time will be focussed on complex or riskier cases.

For working claimants, there will be a real-time feed of updated wages and tax information from the HMRC, so that the Universal Credit can adjust quickly and automatically to changes in income.

On 11/11/10, The Times reported that the IT amendments will not be completed until April 2014, too late for the introduction of Universal Credit in 2013.

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