DWP surveillance, anyone else anxious?

bbt

I’ve recently heard that the DWP are going to start monitoring peoples bank accounts without needing permission or proof of fraud; apparently they’ll be looking out for people who have more savings than is allowed on UC and people who send money overseas, neither of which are things I need to worry about, but the idea of my bank account being spied on gives me the worst feeling 😖

I feel like I won’t be able to buy anything non-essential without feeling like a criminal, if my partner uses my account for the odd gamble (which he does so we can keep an eye on his spending and make sure he’s being safe,) or if I buy a new top, I’d be worried about an agent knocking my door down. 

Is anyone else worried about this? Or better yet can anyone reassure me, I’m really anxious about all this. My worst fear is innocent people being wrongly flagged up for fraud

JonnycJonny

As I understand it, how and on what you spend your welfare payments on is not of any concern to the DWP - obeying the savings/capital regulations is, however, a mandatory requirement. Evidently, too many overseas payments would also be a red flag. 

Albus_Scope

Heya @bbt I understand your worry, but yes it is just to make sure there's no funny goings on with transfers overseas and such.

 Personally, I don't like the idea of the DWP being able to check on peoples spending whenever they want, but I understand they want to cut down on that 1% of benefit fraud. 

OverlyAnxious

Yes, this causes me a lot of anxiety as well.

I read another members experience with all the checks on here yesterday, including having to send in months of bank statements and then go through a phone call to justify various outgoings.  It's made me more anxious than before!  I suppose it's not so bad for people without anxiety or for those that can manage social situations effectively.

I'm also fed up of reading that we can spend the money on whatever we want.  It's simply not true.  The deprivation of capital regs are specifically there to prohibit that! 

Even for backpay, with the 12 month disregard, the DWP investigators can still decide that you've spent that in a way that deprives you of capital before the disregard ends.

woodbine

There has been much discussion about this on here, and the general conclusion has been in two parts 1) nothing to hide nothing to worry about 2) you are allowed to spend your benefits in any way you want.

Albus_Scope

@bbt if you wanted to read more about what our community have had to say, plus the official statement from Scope, I recommend checking out this post.  Hopefully it'll help ease your worries.

bbt

Hi, thank you all for your comments! I got myself into a bit of a panic over this so I appreciate the reassurance.

I’m quite an overly anxious and paranoid person as it is, and even though I have nothing to hide and know I’m claiming benefits fairly, I can’t help but worry that I’ll somehow get flagged! It’s similar to the feeling of panicking when a police car goes past, even though you logically know you did absolutely nothing wrong, if that makes sense to anyone 

worried33

A lot of articles dont seem to have much info and have even speculated it is already law, I found this article.

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/new-legislation-gives-government-permission-to-snoop-on-your-bank-account-364408/

Which links to

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/12/prem-sikka-how-the-data-protection-and-digital-information-bill-is-the-governments-latest-erosion-of-hard-won-rights/

The second one reads as there is a proper understanding of whats going on.

So it isnt law yet, but has already been voted for by parliament, Labour abstained saying they support the bill, so now only the house of lords is the barrier.

There isnt full details of what exactly will be checked, and what types of activity, but there is statements in the article claiming it will be limited information (at least initially), and they focusing on people not declaring resources they claim to not have, so likely will be checking bank savings as well as income, or any type of activity which indicates resources available elsewhere.