Privacy campaigners warn of new powers that would allow the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to demand banks to take money from the accounts of benefit claimants.
Jasleen Chaggar, legal and policy officer at Big Brother Watch, said:
“Navigating the welfare system is a bureaucratic nightmare and innocent people can be left owing money to the DWP through oversight or error.
“We should not be giving the government powers to go behind our backs and pilfer through our bank accounts, especially when the purpose is not just to tackle serious fraud but to correct accounting errors.
“The chilling powers to secretly request three months of bank statements from a welfare recipient’s bank to decide whether they can afford to have the funds removed are paternalistic and nothing short of dystopian. Decisions about whether to seize funds directly from bank accounts should be made by courts, not unaccountable officials in Whitehall.”
The Guardian – Watchdog raises concern over DWP plan to deduct benefit overpayments