Banning benefit cheats from driving would be a “backstop” used in “extreme” cases to target those who repeatedly fail to pay back cash to the taxpayer, a minister has said. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is seeking to gain new powers to disqualify drivers and recover money directly from fraudsters’ bank accounts in a drive to curb welfare fraud.The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill, which would put the measures into law, is due to be introduced in Parliament on Wednesday.
Employment minister Alison McGovern said she was confident that being able to go to court and apply to disqualify drivers who refuse to pay back fraudulently obtained benefits will work. The DWP will also work with banks to see where claimants have more than the £16,000 limit in their accounts and seek to get its own search powers to get evidence rather than relying on the police.The three measures in the Bill will help save the taxpayer £1.5 billion over the next five years, the DWP estimates.
Once the Bill is made law, benefit cheats could be disqualified from driving for up to two years if they refuse to repay money they owe. Courts could suspend fraudsters’ driving licences following application by the DWP if they owe welfare debts of more than £1,000 and have ignored repeated requests to pay it back.The department will also have powers to get bank statements from people they believe have enough cash to pay back welfare debts, but are refusing to do so.
The DWP, however, insists it will not have direct access to people’s bank accounts. “Firstly, we want to work with banks to see where people are outside the eligibility criteria and get that information, because that will help us find the fraud,” employment minister Alison McGovern told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.Secondly, we need the ability to have search powers ourselves to get evidence, rather than relying on the police, as other bits of government do.
“Finally, we’ve got these backstop powers.”
Money can already be reclaimed through the benefits system or PAYE, she said. Ms McGovern said: “If somebody’s not doing either of those things, then we need more powers to be able to get the money back.“So, the new powers will be to get that money back through banks.
“And then, finally, as a backstop power, if after all of that they still don’t want to give us the money back … we want to be able to apply to a court to say ‘disqualify this person for driving’. That is a backstop power to make sure that we get this money back.”
That will be used “in extremis” to tackle benefits cheats, she told Times Radio. “This is already a power that exists, for example, in the child maintenance service, so we’re confident that this will help us deal with those extreme cases,” she said.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said the Government was “turning off the tap to criminals who cheat the system and steal law-abiding taxpayers’ money”. She said the measures would be backed up by new safeguards to ensure powers are used proportionately and safely, and that removing driving licences would be a “last resort”.
In an attempt to provide assurance about the Bill, ministers will bring forward codes of practice for those who will use the new powers. They also plan to introduce new oversight and reporting mechanisms to monitor how the powers are used.
Elsewhere in the Bill, the Public Sector Fraud Authority will be given more powers to tackle Covid-era fraud. Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, welcomed the measures and claimed they were a “continuation” of the Conservatives’ work in power.
She added: “But having knowingly appointed a convicted fraudster to his cabinet, Keir Starmer cannot be trusted to get tough on fraud. Labour must do more to tackle the spiralling welfare budget and explain why they are yet to match our £12 billion in savings – raising the prospect that Rachel Reeves will be back again later this year with another tax raid on working people.”