A privacy expert has urged the DWP to scrap proposed powers to request details of people’s bank accounts warning they could lead to “mass surveillance” of all UK bank accounts.
New anti-fraud powers have been proposed to help the DWP and other public authorities search out cases of benefit fraud and to recover owed money.
This includes the power to issue Eligibility Verification Notices, requiring banks to provide details of their customers’ accounts, so investigators can verify if a person is wrongfully receiving payments.
The draft legislation states that officials will be able to issue these notices “for the purposes of identifying, or assisting in identifying, incorrect payments of a relevant benefit”.
The powers will initially be used to verify the details of those on Universal Credit, on Employment and Support Allowance, and on Pension Credit, although this list could be amended.
Banks will have to identify the accounts they provide that receive these benefits and to provide details of the account such as the sort code and account number, and details of the account holders, such as their names and dates of births.
Jasleen Chaggar, legal and policy officer at Big Brother Watch, voiced major concerns about the new powers. She told MPs: “On the eligibility verification measures—what we are calling the bank spying powers—we are recommending that they be removed in their entirety.
“These really are unprecedented financial surveillance powers. There are no other laws like this in this country. They permit generalised mass surveillance of everybody’s bank accounts.
“It is not just benefits claimants who will be targeted; it is everyone’s accounts, including yours and mine, will be scanned using algorithmic software to make sure that these eligibility indicators are not met.”
She explained how other people could be subject to the checks despite not actually receiving benefits themselves: “Even if you are a benefits recipient, you can appoint an individual—a parent, a guardian, an appointed person or your landlord—to receive the benefit on your behalf, so these people will also be pulled into the net of surveillance. We do not really see a way in which these measures could ever be proportionate.”
In presenting the bill before Parliament last year, Work and Pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, said: “The Eligibility Verification measure will not give DWP access to any bank accounts, nor any information on how claimants spend their money.
“The proposed new power instead helps verify benefit eligibility, using very limited information from banks and financial institutions.
“A human being will always be involved in any investigations and any decisions taken afterwards that affect eligibility or benefit awards, as they do now.”
The bill also grants powers for officials to directly take funds from a person’s bank account where they owe an amount. Before doing so, they have to request at least three months of bank statements, to verify they have the funds to pay up.
They also have to give at least 28 days’ notice to the account holder giving them an opportunity to dispute the matter. Ms Chaggar also raised concerns about the proposed safeguards in the bill, which she said are “really insufficient”.
She explained: “One of the major safeguards that is pointed to as a reassurance is the fact that financial transaction information and special category data will not be handed over to the DWP from the banks.
“But it is a circular safeguard in reality, because once the account number and name of the individual has been passed on to the DWP, they can very easily go back to the bank and request that granular financial information, which is incredibly privacy invasive.”
She was also unimpressed with the bill’s provision of what it calls “an independent person” to review the use of the powers.
She cautioned: “There are no safeguards about what qualifications that person should have. They are expected to provide an annual report to Parliament, but we are concerned that oversight role is more to do with enforcement than accountability.
“There are provisions about the efficiency of the measures but no provisions about how they impact equality or the adverse consequences on benefits recipients, so we are not reassured by these safeguards.”
Ms Chaggar also warned that the measures could disproportionately target the vulnerable: “When you think about the types of individuals these powers will be recovering money from, they are among some of the most vulnerable in our society.
“They are people living on the breadline, disabled people, elderly people and carers, who will all be dragged into this surveillance.
“The risk of errors caused by the automated system that is proposed will, therefore, have a disproportionate effect on those groups of people.”
