Official UK procurement notice
Payment Exception Service - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Authority: Department for Work & Pensions (Central government)
What is being bought2 lots · detail below
Published requirement descriptionDWP is procuring a Supplier to create and operate a system (the "Payment Exception Service") which will allow benefit and pensions recipients (which DWP refers to as “Customers”) without bank accounts to receive payment of entitlement through an alternate method of payment.
The service is required to fulfil the Secretary of State obligation to pay benefit and pensions payments on time, on the due date, to the correct customer.
Customers will need to be able to access their payments in cash at a wide range of geographical locations. Suppliers will need to ensure comprehensive coverage, which DWP will further define in the Tender Notice.
The geographical scope of the Payment Exception Service will be for Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Benefit payments are usually paid weekly, monthly or 4 weekly.
This will be a “Payment Service” as defined by the Payment Services Regulations 2017.
Recent market engagement and 1-2-1 sessions identified new technology and innovation in the market, this has allowed DWP to reflect on their business requirements. DWP has carefully considered whether new technologies will meet the needs of our most vulnerable customers. At the present time DWP considers that a simple and robust delivery model is the best way to ensure that particularly vulnerable customers can access their payments.
Read the full description (1,528 more characters)
To meet the Governments mission-led focus, DWP’s ambition is to ensure that only customers that should be on the service are relying on PES over the coming years, to help support them to become financially included. Consequently, it is intended that DWP will include within the specification Lot 1 business requirements which will have as their aim the lowering the number of people depending on the PES. For this reason, DWP will no longer be pursuing the procurement of Lot 2, as described in previous PME notices.
DWP estimate the date for suppliers to submit Tenders in this Competitive Flexible Procurement will be early to mid September 2025 (Tender Submission Date.) It is not envisaged that there will be a separate “Request to Participate” stage.
Conditions of Participation will be set out in the Tender Notice and bids will be assessed based on legal, financial capacity and technical ability.
DWP strongly advise that potential suppliers review the Conditions of Participation and the fundamental requirements carefully before compiling a full bid as failure to meet these requirements may result in your bid being excluded.
Tender Documents may be obtained via DWP e-procurement system. Further details will be provided at Tender stage.
The Preliminary Market Engagement Notice linked to this procurement stated that Market Engagement would include Conditions of Participation. This was an error. Any Conditions of Participation that DWP require will be added to the Tender Notice (currently scheduled for 31 July 2025)
CPV: Financial and insurance services
Lots and requirements (2)Procurement structure
2 lots · all with a published value (£25,000,000 together)Lot #1Cash Disbursement ServiceCancelledRenewalPublished value£20,000,000
- Value
- £20,000,000 exc. VAT · £24,000,000 inc. VAT
- Extensions
- Allow the safe transition across to a replacement service and provides payment continuity to customers.
Award criteria (1)
- Quality
Lot #2Supporting Financial InclusionCancelledRenewalPublished value£5,000,000
- Value
- £5,000,000 exc. VAT · £6,000,000 inc. VAT
- Extensions
- Allow the safe transition across to a replacement service and provides payment continuity to customers.
Award criteria (3)
- Quality
- Price
- Social Value
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Competitive flexible procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Cancelled
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- No (one-off requirement)
- First published
- 20 Jun 2025, 14:48 BST
- Last source update
- 20 Jun 2025, 14:48 BST
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end — 26 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Authority reference
PA23 PES- Latest notice
- Procurement termination notice (UK12)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-04f71a
How it was run
- Submission deadline
- 21 Aug 2025, 23:59 BST
- Clarification deadline
- 7 Aug 2025, 23:59 BST
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Timeline
8 published dates · Europe/London- Planning notice published21 Mar 2025, 10:00 GMT
- Market engagementmet25 Apr 2025, 23:59 BSTMarket Engagement events occurred between 10 April and 06 May 2025
- Latest notice published20 Jun 2025, 14:48 BST
- Next notice expected31 Jul 2025, 23:59 BST
- Clarification questions by7 Aug 2025, 23:59 BST
- Submission deadline21 Aug 2025, 23:59 BST
- Award decision expected by246 days ago26 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract starts79 days ago13 Jul 2026, 00:00 BST
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics — not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Across several lots1 award | |||
| supplier not published | — | 20 Jun 2025 | CancelledFollowing legal and policy advice, DWP have made the decision to abandon the current procurement project on Jaggaer due to a change in direction from a multi-Lot provision to a single service. As there are technical changes to the procurement, including the removal of the “Lot 2” services, DWP considers that a new and replacement project will ensure DWP are being fully transparent in their change of direction. DWP remains committed to procurement of a Payment Exception Service (broadly aligned with the Lot 1 Services under this Procurement) under a new procurement. Publication of all details of the new procurement will be made today (20 June) The Tender Notice date remains unchanged (31 July) |
Notice history
11 events · 5 releases on Find a Tender · since 21 Mar 2025- Procurement termination notice published20 Jun 2025, 14:48 BSTUK12
- Published value updated20 Jun 2025, 14:48 BSTwas £15,945,022
- Status changed to withdrawn20 Jun 2025, 14:48 BST
- Buyer details updated20 Jun 2025, 14:48 BST
- Preliminary market engagement notice published19 Jun 2025, 15:47 BSTUK2
- Published value updated to £15,945,02219 Jun 2025, 15:47 BSTwas £25,000,000
- Preliminary market engagement notice published27 Mar 2025, 15:36 GMTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published25 Mar 2025, 17:10 GMTUK2
- Procurement method changed25 Mar 2025, 17:10 GMT
- Deadline withdrawn25 Mar 2025, 17:10 GMT
- Planned procurement notice published21 Mar 2025, 10:00 GMTUK3
Published amendments (1)
Detail added
Routine re-releases (5)
- 2025-03: 2 releases · 21 Mar 2025 — 25 Mar 2025
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (5)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Procurement termination notice Procurement termination notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Planned procurement notice Planned procurement notice on Find a Tender