DWP want to 'spy' into bank accounts in Universal Credit fraud clampdown

The DWP are hoping new laws will allow them to obtain information on benefit recipients' bank accounts.

DWP Permanent Secretary Peter Schofield explained in the committee that the department wants to understand "whether [it] can get better access to data on bank account details."

And John Paul Marks, Director General for Work and Health Services, said more data "would be fabulous".
Explaining the idea to MPs, he added: "You could imagine a real-time information type system that every time you declare you don’t have capital, we could see whether or not you actually did."

Also central to our strategy is a drive to make our data-matching processes as sound as possible. By comparing our own data on a customer with data from other sources we can identify discrepancies and trigger further investigation by our staff. In 2005/06 nearly 380,000 data matches were generated by the General Matching Service, which uncovered over £81million in overpayments.
   
As well as this General Matching Service, which runs matches specifically for Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Pension Credit, the Department also uses a Housing Benefit Matching Service running matches for Housing Benefit. We intend to look at bringing these two services together to make their processes more efficient and help reduce the duration of any underpayment or overpayment in a customer’s claim.

http://www.governmenttechnology.co.uk/features/tackling-error-benefit-system

Pintel wrote:You would think that this data sharing would be blocked by the GDPR? As there seems to be a 'cosy' arrangement by the DWP and the banks... I'm surprised that a legal challenge hasn't been made, as bank's aren't a gov department they are a private concern so this private personal data sharing shouldn't happen?

In addition to this is the concern of people's bank accounts being open to fraud by members of the JCP. As there have documented cases of JCP staff commiting fraud from Universal Credit accounts🤪. So you would think there should be a 'firewall' between these organizations.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation

https://www.publicsectorexecutive.com/Audit-inspection-and-safety/dishonest-and-corrupt-dwp-worker-jailed-for-40k-universal-credit-fraud

Explaining the idea to MPs, he added: "You could imagine a real-time information type system that every time you declare you don’t have capital, we could see whether or not you actually did."