The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) ‘bank spying bill’ has come into force and gives government agents new capabilities to tackle benefits fraud.
The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error, and Debt) Bill grants DWP agents the authority to get data from benefit claimants’ bank accounts and, under some conditions, to retrieve payments directly.
The Eligibility Verification Measure is the crucial authority that will allow the DWP to ask banks to provide financial data to its agents. It implies that a bank or other financial institution must comply with the request when it receives a fresh Eligibility Verification Notice.
The information that the institution can be asked to share includes details about the account holder, including their name and date of birth.
Agents can also ask for the bank account’s sort code and account number, as well as details about how the account meets eligibility. Transaction information should not be shared by banks, the DWP says.
If banks and other financial institutions fail to comply with these requirements, they may receive penalty notifications.
Ministers say the government is introducing these powers to be able to determine if an individual is eligible for a benefit they are claiming or have applied for based on their financial position.
For instance, holding over £16,000 in savings normally will render someone ineligible for Universal Credit, except in specific, limited cases.
The measures are understood to have a planned implementation period of 12 months using a ‘phased approach’ and working with a smaller number of banks initially.
The DWP will also gain controversial new powers to directly deduct money from an individual’s earnings or bank accounts using a ‘Direct Deduction Order’.
Baroness Maeve Sherlock, a minister of state for the DWP, said earlier this year that the department estimates it will make between 5,000 and 20,000 Direct Deduction Orders every year.
The new powers have been introduced as part of a raft of measures Labour says will form the “biggest fraud crackdown in a generation.” The government adds that, combined, the plans will save £1.5 billion by 2029/30.
But campaigners have criticised the new powers as “intrusive,” with civil liberties watchdog Big Brother Watch previously warning that it “threatens to usher in an unprecedented system of mass financial surveillance.”
Mikey Erhardt, policy lead at Disability Rights UK, said the new bill “poses a serious risk to Disabled and marginalised people”.
He told The Independent:” The problems with this bill go far beyond the reach of any new technology – they stem from how those in Westminster view our social security system.
“Instead of seeing it as an essential public service – a piece of social infrastructure that ensures we all have access to the right support when needed – they see numbers on a spreadsheet, not actual human lives.”
Minister for Transformation Andrew Western MP said: “It is right that as fraud against the public sector evolves, the government has a robust and resolute response.
“The powers granted through the Bill will allow us to better identify, prevent and deter fraud and error, and enable the better recovery of debt owed to the taxpayer.
“A benefits system people can trust is essential for claimants and taxpayers alike – through this Bill, that’s exactly what we’ll deliver.”
Every day, the DWP resembles the Gestapo more and more.
Even if the great majority of claimants are sincere and real, they are being punished like criminals and used as scapegoats for the small number of people who do misuse the system, and they ought to be held completely responsible.
However, don’t you think that the DWP already do random checks on claimants across the country? Of course, they do, and being contacted by them is scary enough, especially if you have not done anything wrong. Have played by the rules, been genuine and upfront whilst being courteous.
The UK has become an Orwellian state, and its new powers will mean that it can investigate your financial history and bank accounts at any time they want, and we are under continuous surveillance, and we are all being demonised and vilified as a society.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 