The UK government announced plans this week to set up a single, universal credit scheme for benefits payments.

But according to a report in the The Times, the plan may be set back by the HM Revenue and Customs’ Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system, which is currently undergoing an upgrade.

The Times quotes a spokesperson for HMRC as saying that the new software is far from completion, and may not be finished until 2014. The universal credit scheme, which the newspaper claims would require the new PAYE to be in place, is planned for launch in 2013.

In September 2010, it emerged that around six million people had paid either too much or too little tax over the past two years. The errors came to light after a manual process in the PAYE system was computerised.