The Department of Work & Pensions (for non-UK readers, the government department that administers Britain’s social security system) has confirmed what everyone knows about the government’s technological blind spot by throwing up what might be Britain’s biggest-ever computer failure. It all started when they tried to update from Win2K to Windows XP…..then, before they knew what hit them, 80% of the department’s PCs were just so many expensive paperweights. Now, the DWP is understandably very IT-dependent – just think of all those national insurance payments – so this is going to be a real connoisseur’s cockup.
The people we have to thank for this? None other than everyone’s favourite Big Consultant, Electronic Data Systems of Texas. Already blamed for a whole string of British public-sector IT disasters. Just wait for the day the National ID Card server falls over and starts puking 404 errors.