Opinion: DWP should ditch language of welfare and embrace social security Coronavirus has revealed the extent to which the country relies on the Department for Work and Pensions. Government should harness this to create a system that meets the challenges from a post-pandemic economy Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire/PA Images 02 Mar 2021 It’s almost a year since the first national lockdown began. Then it was impossible to imagine the full extent of the challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic would pose and the support that the government would need to put in place in response. As has been widely acknowledged – including by the Social Security Advisory Committee which I chair – the Department for Work and Pensions responded impressively and at pace in improving policy and getting support out to huge numbers of people, with well over a million new claims for Universal Credit in the first fortnight of lockdown. It is far from clear that the legacy benefit system would have coped.