New measures that will allow Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) officials to view details of benefit claimants’ bank accounts could lead to “collateral intrusion” into people’s private details, an expert has warned. The new legislation will enable investigators to request a person’s bank statements in cases where they owe money, to ensure they have the funds available to pay.
Officials will also be able to directly take an amount from a person’s bank account under these new powers. Helena Wood, director of Public Policy and Strategic Engagement at fraud prevention group Cifas, voiced her concerns about the new measures before MPs.
She highlighted the risk of “collateral intrusion” as the quality of data from both the DWP and financial institutions “is not always as good as it could be”. She stressed: “This is a very intrusive power, but it sits in a suite of other measures and powers available to investigators across the system. What we do not want to do with this power is to bring those other powers into disrepute. We have to apply this with due caution, make sure that match is a match.”
She added: “I would like to see which specific data points will be available to the DWP investigator to ensure this is a match and to minimise the risk of collateral intrusion.” The proposed legislation sets out that if the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) wishes to retrieve funds directly from an individual’s bank account, it must first secure a minimum of three months of bank statements by requesting the data from banks or other financial institutions.
The bill includes the ability to mandate banks to “identify every account that the liable person holds with the bank” and send over details such as the type of each account, as well as the name and address of the account holder—or both names in the case of a joint account.
Ms Wood expressed concerns over the privacy implications, emphasising the need to “minimise the level of information” shared by banks with the DWP. She spoke of the need to have in place a “minimum standard of data match that would be required to take action on that data”.
Pointing to potential issues with the bill, she said: “If the banks are only giving a minimum amount of information back into the DWP, how do we know that that is an absolute specific match on the individuals they have on their system? Without seeing information about how that will be acted upon in the code of practice, I am slightly cautious.
“We need to see that detail earlier rather than later, for you to be able to make that judgment about the risks of unintended consequences of this legislation.” These new powers will extend beyond the DWP, with NHS counter-fraud officials indicating they will like use them in combating healthcare fraud.
Alex Rothwell, head of the NHS Counter Fraud Authority, also told MPs: “The bill will be incredibly helpful for us to recover more money from people who have been suspected of fraud.” He also spoke about how the measures could be used in small-scale cases, saying: “When it comes to pursuing criminal justice outcomes in relatively low value cases – perhaps individuals who have taken £5,000 or £10,000, who have been exited through human resources processes or who have simply left the organisation – the bill gives us an incredible opportunity to recover more funds, and I think we would use it extensively.”