Tens of thousands of claimants were found to be in violation of benefit regulations during the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) trial of its new bank monitoring capabilities.
The DWP is currently working on tackling fraud, debt, and error in the benefit system. One of the new plans will give the DWP the power to check the claimant’s bank accounts. The power, called “Third Party Data Gathering” or “data sharing,” will require third parties, such as banks, to provide relevant information to the DWP that may signal that a claimant does not meet the eligibility criteria for the benefit they are receiving, such as having too much in savings.
The DWP requested that two unidentified high-street banks keep an eye on the bank accounts of those receiving Universal Credit, Pension Credit, or ESA (Employment and Support Allowance) as part of a trial of the new powers that took place in 2023.
One bank found that 713,000 accounts belonged to people who were claiming benefits. It was discovered that 60,000 of these accounts, or 8% of them, had balances over the threshold for benefit eligibility throughout the three months. The bank discovered that around half of these accounts were joint accounts, with an average monthly amount of £50,000. You are ineligible for Universal Credit under the existing regulations if your total income, savings, and assets exceed £16,000.
Furthermore, the unidentified bank discovered that 3,000 accounts, or 1%, would violate the overseas restriction. This occurs when an account holder either resides abroad while claiming benefits from the UK or takes longer vacations than allowed by DWP travel regulations. For most advantages, this now lasts for four weeks.
Out of the 713,000 accounts that were examined, 58% belonged to applicants for Universal Credit, 22% to ESA holders, and the remaining 20% to Pension Credit beneficiaries.
The report also disclosed that the DWP had prior examinations completed in 2017. Another bank investigated a small sample of cases during this time and flagged 549 accounts as possibly suspicious following the Proceeds of Crime Act. Of them, 58 instances (11%) had to do with the foreign eligibility criterion and 176 cases (32%) had to do with the capital eligibility requirement.
In 58% of these cases where people had more money than they were allowed, the DWP reported a “positive outcome,” with actions taken including compliance interviews that halted or suspended benefits, criminal investigations, administrative penalties, or prosecutions. In 66% of potential ‘abroad fraud’ cases, benefits were stopped.
This is an abhorrent attempt to blame the poor and run the country into the ground. How many people are savers, in your opinion? And is there any sign that Jeremy Hunt will introduce a wealth tax for the many billionaires sheltering in the UK? Probably not!
People who live their whole lives on benefits don’t have savings sitting in their bank accounts, they know not to have assets in their bank. It’s people who have worked hard and paid taxes all their lives that have savings, and when they lose their jobs, they’re told to live off them.
It’s not hurting people on benefits, it’s hurting people who have worked all their lives but have to then claim benefits because they’ve become sick or lost their jobs, for which they then have to sell their 10K car that they bought with their hard-earned cash while they were employed, and if the government doesn’t want to support hard-working people, then they should stop taxing people’s income of less than 40K per year.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 