The proposed bank spying powers would force third party organisations to trawl all customers’ accounts in search of “matching accounts”.
More info
It would allow the Government’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to access the personal data of welfare recipients by requiring the third party served with a notice – such as a bank, building society or online marketplace - to conduct mass monitoring without suspicion of fraudulent activity. In order to do this, the bank will have to process the data of all bank account holders and conduct mass scanning according to secret search criteria supplied by the DWP.
The mass suspicionless nature of the Government’s proposed new powers mean that they seriously threaten the presumption of innocence; the democratic principle that you shouldn't be spied on unless police suspect you of wrongdoing.
More info
The government should not intrude on the privacy of anyone’s bank account in this country without very good reason and a strong legal justification, whether a person is receiving benefits or not. People who are disabled, sick, carers, looking for work, or indeed linked to any of those people should not be treated like criminals by default.
The new powers would impact some of the poorest people in our society.
More info
This would mean that people with disabilities or long-term illnesses, carers, or even elderly people relying on pensions would be subject to their private financial data being pre-emptively intruded on by banks and other private companies they engage with. Their accounts could then potentially examined by the government without their knowledge putting them at risk of consequential harms.
It is right that fraudulent uses of public money are robustly dealt with and the government already has significant powers to review the bank statements of fraud suspects under existing laws.
More info
Under current rules, DWP can request bank account holders’ bank transaction details as and when needed" because even without suspicion of fraud, DWP can ask for bank statements (e.g. to evaluate or re-evaluate a claim).
The Government's own analysis shows that, if it works as hoped, this unprecedented bank intrusion is expected to generate approx. £250m net annual revenue – this would be mean recovering less than 1/34th or less than 3% of the estimated annual loss to fraud and error (the 'best estimate' is still only £320m).