549 Department for Work and Pensions were reported to the benefits department after a trial look at bank accounts. The DWP will rollout bank account snooping powers under a crackdown on fraud, with 15 major banks working alongside it.
A test has found 60,000 claimants may have contravened rules. And a previously pilot in 2017, requested by the DWP, examined a limited sample of cases containing personal information, resulting 549 bank accounts being reported by the bank to the DWP as Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
Of these, 176 cases (32 per cent) were related to the capital eligibility rule, while 58 (11 per cent) were related to the abroad eligibility rule. The sample of cases reviewed in the 2017 test were derived from suspicious activity reports rather than being random.
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The DWP report said: “The above results of the small-scale tests with two banks and building societies indicate a strong potential for the use of banking data to identify possible capital and abroad fraud and error across a range of means-tested benefits.”
Despite the powers, the DWP has come under fire from civil liberties groups. The Big Brother Watch group said: “The Government is sneaking in new powers to spy on all of our bank accounts on the premise of dealing with benefits errors and fraud. These Orwellian new powers will force banks to flag people who meet secret criteria to the government.
“Everyone wants fraudulent uses of public money to be dealt with, and the government already has strong powers to check the bank statements of suspects. But this is a major expansion of government power. It takes away our financial privacy like never before and does away with the presumption of innocence – the democratic principle that you shouldn’t be spied on unless police suspect you of wrongdoing. People who are disabled, sick, carers or looking for work should not be treated like criminals by default. None of us should.
“We must resist these new powers. Join us in standing up for privacy, equality and financial freedom and support our campaign to stop bank spying today.”
