New laws are set to come in which will allow investigators to view the bank details of millions of benefit claimants. The new powers will allow the DWP to request banking information of those who claim Universal Credit, ESA (Employment and Support Allowance) and Pension Credit. Investigators will carry out the checks to make sure those claiming the three benefits are eligible to do so.
The checks will allow officials to contact banks and other groups who provide bank accounts, to make them hand over details of accounts linked to claimants. They are known as eligibility verification notices and are coming in as part of the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament.
The bill provides several new powers to clamp down on fraudulent claiming of benefits. These include provisions for the DWP to directly take an amount from a person’s bank account, where they are refusing to pay an amount that they owe.
The bill is on its way to becoming law, having been approved by the House of Commons. Now the House of Lords is considering the proposed legislation, with the report stage set to begin on October 15.
This is an opportunity for the Lords to take another look at the legislation and make any amendments. After this, there is a third reading and some final considerations before the law gets the Royal Assent and becomes active.
Investigators will initially use the eligibility checks to check the details of those who claim Universal Credit, ESA and Pension Credit. But within the legislation itself, it states that this could be expanded to other benefits.
DWP guidance about how the powers will be used states: “Eligibility verification notices will be sent to banks and other financial institutions and will set out the specific information required. These will include the eligibility indicators which will be used to determine whether information should be shared with DWP. No personal information will be shared by DWP.
“This power can only be used to obtain information on accounts that receive a specified DWP benefit, and any accounts linked to that benefit receiving account if they match the eligibility indicators set by DWP.”
For example, you can only claim Universal Credit if you have less than £16,000 in savings, apart from in certain exempt cases. If the checks identify an account where a Universal Credit claimant has savings above this threshold, they “will be considered by DWP for further inquiry”, the advice states. However, there will be no decisions made about a person’s benefit entitlement purely on the basis of this information.
