DWP to get entry, search and seizure powers while banks forced to hunt for benefit frauds

Labour have today introduced a bill which will give the DWP powers of entry, search and seizure and will oblige banks to check their datasets for evidence of benefit fraud by customers.

The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill mimics previous Conservative government legislation, which failed due to the calling of an early election by Rishi Sunak.

In a statement to the House of Commons today, Liz Kendall, secretary of state for work and pensions, explained that amongst the bill’s provisions are:

• Powers of entry, search and seizure for DWP staff where there is a suspicion of serious organised crime.
• Giving the DWP the power to apply to courts for a Suspended Driving Disqualification Order, to disqualify a person who owes the DWP money from holding a driving licence.
• Through the DWP’s Eligibility Verification Measure, require banks and other financial institutions to examine their own data sets to highlight where someone may not be eligible for the benefits that are being paid.
• The DWP claim that there are safeguards built into the new measures.

Entry, search and seizure powers will be subject to independent inspection and complaints procedures.

DWP power over banks will not give them access to individual bank accounts or information on how claimants spend their money.

Other measure in the bill include:

• The DWP will have the power to make direct deduction orders to take a regular payment or a lump sum from the account of a person who owes them money.  This will include taking money from joint accounts if the debtor does not have a sole account. It will also include taking “cryptoassets”. In addition, the bank will have the power to charge a fee to the account holder for the cost of removing the money from their account.
• The DWP will have the power to make deduction from earnings orders which allow it to take money directly from the wages of an employed person who owes them money.  Employers will have the power to deduct further sums from the employee’s wages in order to cover the administrative costs of the deductions from earnings order.
• The DWP may impose a civil penalty on anyone who, the DWP is satisfied on the balance of probabilities, helped another person commit – or attempt to commit – fraud.  This applies both to individuals and organisations.  The civil penalty can be up to 100% of the amount that was fraudulently obtained, or would have been obtained if the fraud had been successful.
• The DWP will have the power to issue an “information notice” to a wider range of organisations requiring them to provide specified information where there is a reasonable suspicion that fraud has been, or may be, committed.  The information may relate to the person suspected of fraud or a member of their family.  The DWP can impose a civil penalty on an organisation which fails to comply with an information notice.

You can read Liz Kendall’s statement here.

You can download a copy of the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill from this link

SOURCE: Benefits and Work

SOURCE: Benefits and Work

Featured image: Twitter

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Stop the bank account snoopers

In the name of stopping welfare fraud, the Labour government is proposing an astonishing set of powers to dig into everyone’s finances, warns Matthew Feeney of Big Brother Watch.

MATTHEW FEENEY

The government is rushing ahead with the most expansive growth of financial surveillance in recent memory, leaving very little time for the scrutiny it deserves from MPs and members of the public. Absent significant reform, the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill will empower the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to mandate private institutions to conduct population-wide scanning of our bank accounts, take money directly from the bank accounts, and adopt search and seizure powers currently reserved to police.

The government is justifying this Bill on the grounds that billions of pounds are lost every year through benefit fraud, but the remit of the Bill actually extends far beyond crime and covers administrative errors at the government’s own hand. But while we all want fraud dealt with, this isn’t a genuine project to recover public money – it’s the transformation of the welfare system into a digital surveillance system.

The government usually lets at least two to three weeks pass between the introduction of legislation and its first debate. However, MPs have only been given seven working days to scrutinise its almost 120 pages. These pages contain unprecedented surveillance powers that should worry everyone who values privacy.

The Bill would require banks, building societies, credit unions and other financial institutions to search all our accounts for incorrect DWP payments. Financial institutions would be compelled to conduct population-wide generalised surveillance of its customers. Having rifled through our financial transactions, they will then be mandated to pass the names, dates of birth and account numbers of flagged individuals who meet the government’s secret criteria. It is hard to think of a financial proposal in recent history that would result in such a mass reversal of the presumption of innocence. Individuals will now be presumed guilty of welfare fraud – unless the computer says otherwise.

The real targets of this Bill are recipients of Universal Credit, Pension Credit and Employment Support Allowance. These benefits are claimed by the poorest in our society, disabled people, the elderly and carers. We all know the perils of algorithmic error – one need only recall the Horizon Scandal to understand what’s at stake. Even an error rate of one per cent in the AI systems used by banks would result in thousands of benefits recipients being falsely flagged, subjected to wrongful investigation by the state and having to undergo burdensome appeals. Even if you believe that it is worth sacrificing our privacy in the name of catching benefits cheats, you should first consider the number of innocent people who will inevitably be caught in the net.

The Bill would also empower DWP beyond financial surveillance, allowing DWP officials to apply for warrants for electronic devices such as phones and laptops. In addition, the Bill would allow these officials to accompany police on searches of homes.

Such a blurring of lines between police and DWP is concerning. In a liberal democracy, the number of government officials permitted to search our belongings and seize our property should be well defined and small. DWP is already permitted to investigate fraud and to assist the police in criminal investigations. The powers granted to DWP in the Bill represent a sledgehammer designed to crack a walnut.

We must not neglect the ‘Error’ mentioned in the title of the Bill. DWP often makes errors when distributing benefits. Almost £1 billion of DWP overpayments in financial year 2024 were attributed to official error. Many people, through no fault of their own, receive more from DWP than they should. These are not members of criminal gangs or fraudsters seeking to steal taxpayer money. Oftentimes they are deserving recipients of benefits who are receiving more than they should thanks to incompetence or honest error from DWP.

The Bill’s surveillance power is expected by the government’s own estimate to only accrue approximately £138 million in net annual revenue – which accounts for less than 1.4 per cent of the estimated annual loss to fraud and error. The vanishing returns from this gargantuan overstep mean that MPs should be asking the government whether DWP’s time might be better spent getting their own house in order rather pushing for DWP employees to act like deputised police officers.

The history of surveillance is one full of governments creating new surveillance powers and then failing to keep such powers contained. At a time when the government is pressing ahead with more data collection and sharing in the name of government efficiency, we should all be wary of granting the government with more powers to snoop on some of our most sensitive data.

Matthew Feeney is advocacy manager at Big Brother Watch. Before joining Big Brother Watch, Matthew worked at think tanks in London and Washington, DC, where he focused on a range of technology and civil liberties issues.

Find out more about Big Brother Watch’s campaign, Stop Bank Spying.

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This article (Stop the bank account snoopers) was created and published by Matthew Feeney and is republished here under “Fair Use”

 

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