Stop Bank Spying

Stop the Government from spying on all of our bank accounts

UPDATE: We defeated the previous government's plans to spy on all of our bank accounts. These proposals were Orwellian, cruel and intrusive in the extreme but now, Starmer's Government is bringing them back in a new Public Authorities (Fraud, Error & Recovery) Bill. Join over 200,000 who rejected these plans and our sign our petition to say Stop Bank Spying if you haven't already.

Sir Keir Starmer is pushing plans we defeated under the Conservative Government - to spy on all of our bank accounts on the premise of dealing with welfare fraud and error.

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.

PETITION

After over 170,000 of you signed our petition, Rishi Sunak's Conservative Government were forced to junk these intrusive plans.

But now they're back, it's clear we need to send a new message to Labour and demand that they drop the latest version of these bank spying powers.

SIGN THE PETITION

TELL THE GOVERNMENT TO STOP BANK SPYING

Tell the Government to scrap their proposed mass financial surveillance powers. Make sure you personalise your email with your own reasoned arguments and feelings about the Government's plans to spy on all of our bank accounts.

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Step 2: Personalise message

I am writing to raise my urgent concerns about the extraordinary mass bank spying and intrusive debt recovery powers buried in the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) (‘PAFER’) Bill. Given that you opposed the bank spying powers when they appeared in the last government's defeated Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, we hope you will take these concerns seriously. The “Bank Spying” Bill will force banks to spy on all of us on the premise of looking for potential indicators of welfare fraud or errors – including the government’s own errors. Of course genuine fraudsters should face the law, and the government already has extensive powers to monitor people where they suspect criminality. But this Bill will turn Britain’s welfare state into a digital surveillance system. Over 270,000 members of the public have signed petitions calling for the measures to be scrapped and 24 civil society organisations have urged the Government to drop the powers. The Bill also introduces punitive and incommensurate debt recovery powers – including deducting money directly from bank accounts and disqualifying driving licenses – targeting those who owe money to the Department for Work and Pensions. Impact on privacy The new powers will compel banks and building societies to trawl all customer accounts without prior suspicion of fraudulent activity. The banks will be forced by the government to create a dataset of all their customers in receipt of a benefit, which puts people at risk of being treated like second class citizens – particularly the elderly and disabled, but also people whose accounts receive benefits on behalf of other people such as parents, carers, partners/joint account holders and landlords. Further, the only way for banks to find such customers is to frequently scan the income of every single bank account, looking for such payments – entailing financial intrusion for the entire population. Banks then have to send information to the government about accounts and account holders, and any “indicators” of potential payment fraud or error – including the government’s own errors – by analysing our accounts and even secondary accounts. This is an incredibly complex and intrusive task, bound to result in many thousands of errors affecting some of our country’s most at-risk people. This Bill proposes a completely unprecedented regime of intrusive generalised financial surveillance across the population, not restricted to serious crime or even crime at all. The purpose of the new proposed powers is to monitor bank accounts where there are no reasonable grounds for believing a particular person has engaged in benefit fraud or has made any mistake in claiming benefits. Labour’s plans would result in millions of people being subject to unwarranted surveillance of their bank accounts and turn banks into unwilling investigators, forced to spy on their customers and report back to the State. These powers are a serious attack on the presumption of innocence. The Equality and Human Rights Commission called for the first iteration of these powers to be scrapped and a legal opinion, commissioned by Big Brother Watch and written by Dan Squires KC and Aidan Wills, found that the powers were likely to breach UK privacy rights, protected by Article 8 of the Human Rights Act. Impact on equality Almost 10 million individuals are in receipt of the benefits covered in this Bill. They should not be treated with suspicion in this way, simply for receiving money from the state. Using algorithms to scan millions of accounts is highly likely to result in mistakes. The people most affected will be people already suffering on the poverty line including those who are vulnerable, sick or disabled, older people, those who care for people in these groups, and others. The Horizon scandal saw hundreds of people wrongfully prosecuted using data from faulty software. The Government must learn from this mistake – not replicate it en masse. Ineffective and disproportionate The powers are entirely disproportionate. According to the previous government’s analysis, if the powers work as estimated, they are expected to accrue approximately £138 million in net annual revenue. This amount is less than 1.5% of the estimated annual loss to fraud and error, demonstrating that these powers will not be effective despite their risk to human rights, civil liberties and equality. These rushed mass bank spying powers have no place in our democracy. They are an unprecedented and disproportionate invasion of the public’s financial privacy, the effect of which will be felt most sharply by the most vulnerable in our society. Please will you acknowledge these serious concerns in Parliament? Kind regards,

Please leave this field empty.

5 Key Issues

1. Violates privacy

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.

2. Undermines the presumption of innocence

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.

3. Impacts society's most vulnerable

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.

4. Unnecessary

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).

5. Disproportionate and ineffective

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).

Take Action

Sign the petition

Tell the Government to stop spying on all of our bank accounts.

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Email the Government

Use our template email to voice your concerns.

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Become a Big Brother Watch supporter

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BRIEFINGS

Big Brother Watch briefing on the Public Authorities Fraud, Error and Recovery Bill Briefing for Second Reading in the House of Lords

IN THE MEDIA

Computer Weekly – Experts say mass bank spying powers target the poor

May 21, 2025

Yahoo! News – MPs tear into the Government’s mass bank spying bill

April 30, 2025

As a carer, I’m outraged by the Government’s mass bank spying powers

April 25, 2025

Novara Media – Labour’s mass bank spying bill treats benefit recipients as “suspects by default”

April 24, 2025

The Guardian – Government under fire over plans to take money directly from benefit recipients’ bank accounts

April 17, 2025

Jasleen Chaggar Legal and Policy Officer Big Brother Watch

The Independent – Everybody’s bank accounts will be “pulled into the net of surveillance”, privacy rights expert warns

March 4, 2025

Go to media

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Stop Bank Spying

PETITION

TELL THE GOVERNMENT TO STOP BANK SPYING

Step 1: Enter your details

Step 2: Personalise message

5 Key Issues

1. Violates privacy

2. Undermines the presumption of innocence

3. Impacts society's most vulnerable

4. Unnecessary

5. Disproportionate and ineffective

Take Action

Sign the petition

Email the Government

Become a Big Brother Watch supporter

BRIEFINGS

IN THE MEDIA

Computer Weekly – Experts say mass bank spying powers target the poor

Yahoo! News – MPs tear into the Government’s mass bank spying bill

As a carer, I’m outraged by the Government’s mass bank spying powers

Novara Media – Labour’s mass bank spying bill treats benefit recipients as “suspects by default”

The Guardian – Government under fire over plans to take money directly from benefit recipients’ bank accounts

The Independent – Everybody’s bank accounts will be “pulled into the net of surveillance”, privacy rights expert warns

Join our email list

Donate to Big Brother Watch

Donate to
Big Brother Watch