DWP bank account monitoring gets Labour green light with new bill

As the Labour Party Conference is underway and the new government cautiously outlines its plans for Britain after 14 years of Conservative leadership, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has unveiled new legislation that would give the department extensive new powers to tackle fraud – a move that seems eerily familiar.

Despite recent overhauls at the DWP to revamp disability benefit assessments and view claimants as “individuals”, the newly proposed bill by the Government appears to incorporate some Conservative strategies to clamp down on claimants who are receiving excessive payments, either inadvertently or through fraudulent means. This includes a contentious policy that would boost the DWP‘s bank surveillance powers.

These powers were included in the Tory’s Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, which was discarded when then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the July election that led to a historic Labour landslide. However, now, along with powers to inspect homes and confiscate assets, the DWP is forging ahead with its efforts to recover some of the estimated £10 billion that is overpaid or fraudulently claimed each year.

The Department for Work and Pensions has announced that the Fraud, Error and Debt Bill will enhance their capabilities to crack down on benefit fraudsters through increased bank account surveillance, a move aimed at keeping pace with the “more sophisticated” nature of modern benefit fraud. The DWP also contends that search and seizure powers will bolster its efforts to “take greater control investigations into criminal gangs defrauding the taxpayer.”

The implementation of bank account monitoring could address the issue of unintentional benefit overpayments, which has notably affected many carers who inadvertently exceed the £150 a week threshold for Carer’s Allowance, leaving some in debt by thousands of pounds. With the new system, the government would be alerted when earnings surpass this limit, thereby preventing erroneous payments, reports the Manchester Evening News.

The DWP justifies the need for these measures, arguing that scrutinising claimants’ bank accounts will introduce “greater fairness” into the welfare system by enabling it to “recover debts from individuals who can pay money back but have avoided doing so, bringing greater fairness to debt recoveries.”

When these proposals were initially put forward by the Conservatives in 2023, it was estimated that around nine million Britons, primarily those receiving Universal Credit, ESA, and Pension Credit, could have their accounts monitored. However, the Benefits and Work forum has suggested that this figure might be considerably higher due to a recent spike in Pension Credit applications.

Similar to the preceding legislation, it has been confirmed that under these new powers, banks will be the ones expected to carry out monitoring tasks rather than the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) themselves. The intricacies of how these powers will operate are to be disclosed during the unveiling of Labour’s Fraud, Error and Debt Bill before parliament.

To assuage public concerns, the DWP has reassured: “The Bill will also include safeguarding measures to protect vulnerable customers. Staff will be trained to the highest standards on the appropriate use of any new powers, and we will introduce new oversight and reporting mechanisms, to monitor these new powers.

“DWP will not have access to people’s bank accounts and will not share their personal information with third parties.”