On Thursday 26 May (10:00-11:30), techUK is delighted to be hosting the Department for Work and Pensions for an industry briefing on the short, medium and long-term strategy of the Universal Credit Programme. The event will be held virtually over MS Teams and will last no longer than 90 minutes. After the overview from the Universal Credit Programme, there will be an opportunity for suppliers to ask any questions during a Q&A session at the end.
Background/Context
Universal Credit is the working-age benefit delivered to over 5 million UK citizens through a modern Digital service, designed, built and operated in-house by DWP. At full scale, the service will pay £67bn per year in benefits.
While Universal Credit is already operating at a large scale, there are 2.5 million more people to move onto Universal Credit from the legacy benefits that the service is replacing, all whilst continuing to build new features and enhance existing features in the service.
There are 17 Theme teams working as multi-disciplinary agile teams delivering business functionality, and a number of technical teams covering CI/CD, performance, and platform.
The engineering landscape is complex, with over 3 million lines of Java code, 100k automated tests, 150 different types of microservice, fully hosted in AWS and MongoDB Atlas. We also have many Integrations with other DWP systems and 3rd parties, and security is at the forefront of all our work.
Purpose of this event
DWP are keen to use this opportunity:
- to engage the open market, sharing information with suppliers about the Universal Credit short, medium and long-term strategy;
- to share thoughts on particular challenges within Universal Credit and how DWP want to engage with the market; and
- to understand how suppliers want to be engaged by DWP.
Desired outcomes of this event include the following:
- The market understands Universal Credit, how it operates and the challenges.
- The market understands how Universal Credit wish to engage the third-party supplier market in the future.
- DWP understand how the third-party supplier market wants to be engaged in the future.
After the event, suppliers will be invited to complete a questionnaire, providing supporting information on a range of areas that will support DWP’s strategy. The supplier responses will be reviewed and where appropriate, suppliers may be invited to a 1-2-1 session to explore ideas and discuss further.
Book your place now for this fantastic briefing!
Please note: Registration is for this pre-market engagement event only. This is NOT a Contract Notice or an invitation to tender for a contract opportunity. In the event that DWP wishes to progress with any procurement activity, a separate Contract Notice will be advertised on Contracts Finder and Find a Tender (FTS) websites.
Care will be taken not to provide any individual organisation or organisations with a competitive advantage at any stage in the pre-market engagement process.
For more information regarding this event, please contact the below Team:
Heather Cover-Kus
Heather Cover-Kus
Heather is Associate Director, Central Government and Education at techUK, working to represent the tech supplier community to Central Government.
She started as Head of Central Government at techUK in April 2022 and was promoted to Associate Director in August 2025 supporting both the Central Government and Education programmes.
Prior to joining techUK in April 2022, Heather worked in the Economic Policy and Small States Section at the Commonwealth Secretariat. She led the organisation’s FinTech programme and worked to create an enabling environment for developing countries to take advantage of the socio-economic benefits of FinTech.
Before moving to the UK, Heather worked at the Office of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas and the Central Bank of The Bahamas.
Heather holds a Graduate Diploma in Law from BPP, a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from LSE, and a BA in Economics and Sociology from Macalester College.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-cover-kus-ba636538
Ellie Huckle
Ellie Huckle
Ellie joined techUK in March 2018 as a Programme Assistant to the Public Sector team and now works as a Programme Manager for the Central Government Programme.
The programme represents the supplier community of technology products and services in Central Government – in summary working to make Government a more informed buyer, increasing supplier visibility in order to improve their chances of supplying to Government Departments, and fostering better engagement between the public sector and industry. To find out more about what we do, how we do this and how you can get involved – make sure to get in touch!
Prior to joining techUK, Ellie completed Sixth Form in June 2015 and went on to work in Waitrose, moved on swiftly to walking dogs and finally, got an office job working for a small local business in North London, where she lives with her family and their two Bengal cats Kai and Nova.
When she isn’t working Ellie likes to spend time with her family and friends, her cats, and enjoys volunteering for diabetes charities. She has a keen interest in writing, escaping with a good book and expanding her knowledge watching far too many quiz shows!
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 020 7331 2015
- Twitter:
- @techUK,@techUK
- Website:
- www.techuk.org,www.techuk.org
- LinkedIn:
- https://bit.ly/3mtQ7Jx,https://bit.ly/3mtQ7Jx
Charles Bauman
Charles Bauman
Charles Bauman is a Junior Programme Manager in the Central Government Programme at techUK.
He supports the programme’s mission to represent the technology supplier community to the UK government and advocate for digital innovation to address public sector challenges. Charles helps facilitate market engagement, foster partnerships, and ensure that tech suppliers and the government work collaboratively to improve outcomes, deliver value for money, and enhance public services for citizens.
Before joining techUK, Charles gained significant experience in research, analysis, and strategic advisory roles. At H/Advisors Cicero, he specialised in public affairs and corporate communications, while at Verdantix, he supported sustainability research and advisory projects, focusing on regulatory and environmental challenges.
Charles holds an MSc in Theory and History of International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and an MA in Medieval History from King’s College London.
Charles enjoys volunteering with a think tank, reading, hiking, and spending time with his dog and family outside of work.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Website:
- www.techuk.org
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-bauman-75712016b/
Francesca Richiusa
Francesca Richiusa
Fran serves as the Programme Team Assistant within techUK’s Public Sector Market Programmes, where she is responsible for delivering comprehensive team support, managing administrative functions, and fostering strong relationships with members.
Prior to joining techUK in May 2025, Fran built a meaningful career in the charitable and local government sectors. She worked extensively with both victims and perpetrators of crime, and notably led the coordination of Domestic Homicide Reviews across Surrey—an initiative aimed at identifying lessons and preventing future incidents of domestic abuse.
Outside of work, Fran is an avid traveller and a proud cat mum who enjoys unwinding with her feline companions.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Website:
- www.techuk.org/
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesca-richiusa/
