The Department of Work and Pensions is set to spend an extra £360m to ensure that the decisions it makes over people's crucial benefit payments are 'accurate.'
The extra cash was announced by Chancellor Sajid Javid in yesterday's spending review - as part of an overall £13bn funding plan that he claims will 'end austerity.'
Many have already derided the series of announcements as 'blatant electioneering' as the country heads towards an inevitable national poll.
But people in Merseyside will be interested in the extra money promised to the DWP - partly because it will confirm what many around here already know - that the department has not been fit for purpose for some time.
The ECHO has repeatedly reported on shocking and harrowing cases of those who have had incorrect and unfair decisions foisted on them by the DWP - leading to some tragic circumstances.
The Spending Review stated that the overall DWP resource will rise to 1.9% in 2020/21.
This will include an extra £40m for emergency housing payments aimed at tackling problems for those living in private rented accommodation.
Many renters have found themselves in serious trouble because of problems with Universal Credit.
And there is also an extra £36m promised to 'ensure DWP decision-making is accurate' and that 'the application processes are straightforward and accessible.'
While extra money in this area will be welcomed - many will ask why it has taken so long for the government to realise the deep-rooted problems in the DWP that have caused misery for so long.
The money will come too late for Liverpool man Stephen Smith , who was wrongly and repeatedly denied potentially life-saving benefits that he needed as he battled a number of serious illnesses.
Stephen eventually had to get a pass out from hospital so that he could take on the DWP at a tribunal and win his case.
As many ECHO readers will know, before he was finally awarded the money he had been wrongly denied for so long, Stephen died.
His is just one of many cases across our region that have exposed the DWP and its processes as being unfit in recent years - and people will certainly need to be convinced that wholesale changes are on the way.
