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DWP benefit Blockchain trial slammed by digital experts

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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A DWP trial of the use of Blockchain technology for the payment and spending of benefits has raised concerns about data privacy and government control, according to Public Technology.Net. The DWP trial, which began in May and will run for three to six months, currently involves eight benefits claimants but may increase to up to 24.

The trial, which is being conducted by fintech company GovCoin Systems, sees participants being paid their benefits through an app that uses the distributed ledger technology behind BitCoin. The participants can then spend their benefits payments with the trial’s partners RWE npower and Barclays.

The company is responsible for handling the data, and the DWP said that this data is stripped of personal information before it reached the department. However, concerns have been raised about the opacity of the trial’s methodology around the trial, and the department did not respond to PublicTechnology’s request for further details of how the participants were recruited or how the trial would be evaluated.

A spokesman from DWP said that it was for proof-of-concept only, and stressed that there were “no plans to replace any DWP payment systems”. GDS chief executive Stephen Foreshew-Cain questioned the use of blockchain technology – which permanently records information – and whether the scheme would be used to restrict where benefits could be spent.

“You can be sure that the user need wasn’t: [Please] record forever, immutably, details of my benefits & restrict how I spend them,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s not the most vulnerable in our society being served here but divisive ideology of ruler and ruled.”

Meanwhile, Foreshew-Cain’s predecessor Tom Loosemore, who left the GDS unexpectedly last year, suggested that the plan was the reason for his departure.

More here DWP benefit Blockchain trial slammed by digital experts

There was a good article on blockchain technology (and Bitcoins) by John Lanchester in the London Review of Books a couiple of months back if you want some background reading on the subject When Bitcoin Grows Up

shawn mach
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Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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shawn - 14 July 2016 10:13 AM

More here too: http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/welfare-rights/news/item/dwp-running-a-proof-of-concept-to-test-claimants-using-a-mobile-app-to-rece

Thanks Shawn, I missed that somehow.

When will rightsnet start taking Bitcoin for subscription fees?

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Paul_Treloar_AgeUK - 14 July 2016 11:35 AM

When will rightsnet start taking Bitcoin for subscription fees?

I’ll leave it to you to raise it with our finance team!

Stuart
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Economic Affairs select committee is to hold a one-off inquiry into blockchain technology taking evidence from witnesses on 19 July.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/economic-affairs-committee/news-parliament-2015/distributed-ledger-technology-evidence-session/

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Like any new developing technology, folks can see that blockchain could be used for so called “good” or “evil”. The unintended consequences could also result in good or evil.

I suspect this is in part a reputational problem with the DWP. People are focusing on the negatives.

Rather interestingly despite all those that have criticised the use of BItcoin, it is noticeable that individuals in companies, civil service and students in general are all signing up for courses in droves seeing the potential in the technology…it is just we cant envisage a future without the good old pound coin.  Heaven forbid we lose the pound.

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Response to written questions by Damian Hinds yesterday concerning the trial -

The DWP works continuously with industry partners to identify and test new innovations that could save taxpayer money, safeguard information and better protect payments to customers.
The DWP is undertaking some small scale research involving blockchain technology which is expected to last 3-6 months with the results available in the last quarter of 2016. It uses a private permissioned distributed ledger to allow participants to store their transactions, including payments from DWP. Those transactions can then be viewed securely on a mobile application so that they can, if they wish, monitor and allocate their spending into categories, check their available balance and plan future spending. There are currently about 12 people in the trial which we expect to increase to around 24 people by the close.
The participants in the trial have complete control over their data and how it is used; the government does not receive or see any of that data. The DWP takes privacy and security extremely seriously and this will form part of the learning from the trial.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-07-13/42718

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Government has approved the first blockchain technology supplier ‘paving the way for the use of distributed ledger services to be used across the public sector’, according to publictechnology.net

https://www.publictechnology.net/articles/news/government-approves-first-blockchain-technology-supplier-g-cloud

Benny Fitzpatrick
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So when are they going to start paying MPs by this method? No more £39.00 breakfasts at the taxpayer’s expense!!!!!

Mike Hughes
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“some Blockchain transactions could take up to 10 minutes”.

That’ll be popular.

Daphne
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In a debate on the GovCoin trial in the House of Lords yesterday, Lord Henley said -

My Lords, the initial independent assessment of the small-scale trial has been positive. The Department for Work and Pensions continues to work with industry to explore new and innovative products such as this that have the potential to support people with their personal budgeting and reduce the overall costs of welfare administration….

Certainly, we want to look carefully at this particular trial. It was a very small trial, involving only some 20 to 30 people. It was more what I think is termed a proof of concept rather than a trial, but it produced encouraging results and we want to look at those in due course….

My Lords, there is no next trial planned at this stage. We are considering that. It is not a question of discounts but of the fact that those who have to deal purely in cash can find life very much more expensive than those who are able to pay by other, more advanced means. That is the point behind it.

https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2017-03-27/debates/D34EDCAF-56D6-46E7-A16F-C4DB2FCA9890/Govcoin

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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Following on from Daphne’s post immediately above, just came across this article.

Conservative peer Lord Henley, who is a government spokesman on the Govcoin experiment, said in March 2017: “There is no next trial planned at this stage.” More recently, during a upper chamber debate on the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” – in which blockchain is viewed as playing a key role – Henley failed to mention Govcoin by name.

A feeble response was elicited from Henley, following an enthusiastic comment made by fellow Tory peer Lord Holmes, who – hinting at the subject – said: “There are some excellent initiatives in various departments, not least the use of blockchain in the Department for Work and Pensions to greatly empower benefits recipients.”

Henley replied: “My noble friend is right to say that there are great opportunities ahead of us.”

The government may be backing tech innovation, but it doesn’t mean companies such as Govcoin should have a free pass into the heart of civic life. Ironically, the dream for some who backed the technology from the start was that cryptocurrencies and blockchain would mean less government interference – not more.

Why a blockchain startup called Govcoin wants to ‘disrupt’ the UK’s welfare state

Mike Hughes
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What‘s this “empowerment“ thing he‘s banging on about? Empowered by whom to do what?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all up for innovation (although I‘m rarely an early adopter) however this remains, to me, a fine example of DWP normalising the continued privatisation of benefits. To work there needs to be profit. People have already speculated on where that will come from and I think they’re right. it‘s anything but empowerment.

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Written answer in the house of commons on friday about how the proof of concept trial on the mobile app went, and future plans for Govcoin -

The trial provided valuable insight into customer needs, and this was used to inform the decision to develop a future method of payment strategy that outlines DWP’s commitment to improving the methods available to make payments to customers. The Department is currently working with industry to identify new and emerging payment opportunities that suit the needs of DWP and its customers, in support of the future strategy.

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Daphne - 12 February 2018 10:50 AM

Written answer in the house of commons on friday about how the proof of concept trial on the mobile app went, and future plans for Govcoin -

The trial provided valuable insight into customer needs, and this was used to inform the decision to develop a future method of payment strategy that outlines DWP’s commitment to improving the methods available to make payments to customers. The Department is currently working with industry to identify new and emerging payment opportunities that suit the needs of DWP and its customers, in support of the future strategy.

“new and emerging payment opportunities”  - You couldn’t make it up!