Universal Credit Review - data protection breach!
Hi everyone,
I know a lot of individuals are having or have had UC reviews where the DWP demand 4 months bank statements. Current laws state that the DWP can only look into financial accounts, bank statements, if there is a reasonable suspicion of fraud. When asked if you are being investigated for fraud, you are told no. As I was.
If the DWP have not sent you the Personal Information Charter, (right to be informed) which informs you of your rights & rights to refuse. This is a clear breach of GDPR laws under Transparency & fairness. They didn’t send me the Personal Information Charter!
The legislation that the DWP state they are using is 38(2) to carry out these “reviews” is :-
Part 3 of The Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker's Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Claims and Payments) Regulations 2013 https://legislation.gov.uk (opens in new tab) (Reg 38(2)), allows the Secretary of State, to ask for information or evidence in relation to an ongoing award of benefit. These are the statutory powers which allow claim reviews to be carried out. The legislation can be read in full at the following address: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/380/regulation/38 (opens in new tab) These powers require customers to supply information or evidence in connection with the claim, or any question arising out of it, as the Secretary of State considers appropriate. Agents act on behalf of the Secretary of State when requesting evidence in relation to claims for existing Universal Credit”
However, 38(2) is a PIP legislation & is for medical information NOT for bank statements as shown here :-
38. (2) Subject to regulation 8 of the Personal Independence Payment Regulations, a person to whom this regulation applies must supply in such manner as the Secretary of State may determine and within the period applicable under regulation 45(4)(a) of the Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker's Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2013 M1 such information or evidence as the Secretary of State may require for determining whether a decision on the award of benefit should be revised under section 9 of the Social Security Act 1998 M2 or superseded under section 10 of that Act”Regulation 8 of the Personal Independence Payments states ;-
8.—(1) The Secretary of State may require C to provide any information or evidence required to determine whether C has limited ability or severely limited ability to carry out daily living activities or mobility activities.(2) Where information or evidence is requested under paragraph (1), C must provide the information or evidence to the Secretary of State within one month from the date of the request being made or within such longer period as the Secretary of State may consider reasonable in the circumstances of the particular case.(3) Where C fails without good reason to comply with the request referred to in paragraph (1), a negative determination in relation to the component to which the failure related must be made.
The DWP are in my opinion, as is quite clear above, misusing PIP legislation to get access to individuals personal data, personal spending, bank statements. PIP is a none means tested benefit which requires NO financial evidence.
Also, the UCR review is a TCR review, Targeted Case Review, which is an anti fraud plan. Look it up. When I stated this to the DWP in my complaint they said it is not a fraud investigation, yet then admitted TCRs are “managed” by UCR who conduct the reviews. Very contradictory!
I raised a complaint to the data protection officer at the DWP after my review as I knew they’d breached my privacy & GDPR laws. I also raised a complaint with the ICO who conducted an investigation. In conclusion of my complaint to the ICO, the DWP stated to the ICO that they will make sure that individuals are made aware of their rights to be informed, via the Personal Information Charter, hence admitting they’d breached GDPR Transparency & Fairness! A data controller Must provide Privacy Information & rights to be informed (Personal information charter in the DWP case) to the data subject at the point of collecting personal data. They admitted their messaging could have been clearer, (they didn’t tell me why they needed my data apart from to see if payments are correct, they didn’t say I would be questioned about personal spending in my review. I was blindsided & was led to believe it was a health review. The ICO also asked the DWP to consider if redactions to bank statements could be considered, the DWP agreed to look at it, balancing the need for transparency in reviewing a claim & PRIVACY of any irrelevant financial information.
Today I was asked for more bank statements (after supplying 4 months last year). When I stated what the ICO had recommended to the DWP, I was told they had not received any recommendations from the ICO, which is an outright lie as they have the ICO response letter. I have now put in a further complaint to the data protection officer at the DWP & the ICO. My physical & mental health has been hugely impacted by all of this, disabled individuals are not treated fairly nor their vulnerability taken into account.
The ICO will only act against the DWP if enough people make complaints about GDPR breaches & privacy breaches.
I am now seeking legal advice.
Comments
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Hi
Has there been an update from ICO regarding your complaint against dwp again? Thanks
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Thank you so much for sharing this, it has saved me so much time and leg work. I'm helping others with this review process and so sorry that you had to go through the process to learn what you have. We really have to stick together and share information to keep up with their antics and lies. Fighting back against UC bullying is the Facebook group, you'd be more than welcome to join us, you sound like you're very well informed and would be an enormous help. A few of us have managed to stop the review process without showing outgoing payments on bacmnk accounts. I only know 1 person who's had their claim closed without showing any bank statements at all!! There is hope thank you again, this information will help so many people still going through it xxx
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Thanks for sharing this @TG0601. Please keep us updated on how you progress with the legal complaint if you're happy to.
Best wishes,
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I have been asked for a review to my UC payments and to provide last 4 months of bank statement which isnt a problem but what i sold 2 things of mine which were a couple hundred and was payed by bank how will i be able to prove this to them?? Can i have someone for support with me as i have a serious mental health issue and am in distress over the transactions of me seeling some items from my shed.
Could i contact the citizen advice and aak them if someone can talk on my behalf.
Thanks
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@Amusanon8, selling personal items is fine. If they ask about the payments (which they may not), simply explain what you’ve outlined here; that you sold two of your own belongings.
Their main focus is on finding people with large savings or evidence of people working without declaring it.
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Hi Kevin, the ICO responded that they could not reopen the same complaint investigation as it was concluded last year. They did however say once again (as they stated in their investigation conclusion letter last year) that they HAD made recommendations to the DWP (which the DWP denied). I am still awaiting a response from the DWP to my latest complaint. I also have a complaint lodged with ICE who are doing an investigation into the DWP malpractices.
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Thank you, Holly. I will update this post when I get my response from the DWP regarding my latest complaint. I am also awaiting a response from my MP who sent my issues regarding the misuse of legislation to specialists in the House of Commons to look into. This can’t continue. The DWP are discriminating against the most vulnerable in society. It’s heinous.
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Thank you, Biss. I’m so pleased this post has help you & others. I’m not on facebook but I’m glad there is a page on their dedicated to challenging the DWP. Please feel free to copy & paste my post on the facebook group. & please contact me if you need any support etc. How did you & others manage to stop the UC review process? That is very interesting to know. Keep in touch xx
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Thank you, Biss. I’m so pleased this post has help you & others. I’m not on facebook but I’m glad there is a page on their dedicated to challenging the DWP. Please feel free to copy & paste my post on the facebook group. & please contact me if you need any support etc. How did you & others manage to stop the UC review process? That is very interesting to know. Keep in touch xx
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Has anyone challenged the request and been successful? Even if it meant blacking out direct debits, I mean why on earth would they need to see them if they apparently aren’t interested what you are spending money on? Seems very contradictory to say the least. It should be as simple as checking what goes in angry goes out matches up, and your savings are not over the amount stated.
They should have to have reasonable cause for such personal info! This is wrong.3 -
I tried blacking out some transaction names.
This was rejected and I was told to provide unredacted statements.
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I was asked to provide more bank statements a couple of months ago. I asked the DWP if they were going to accept redacted bank statements, given what the ICO suggested/recommended to the DWP. The UCR team told me they haven’t received anything from the ICO. So I put in another formal complaint to the DWP demanding to know why they are lying to me, they have the letter from the ICO. I also asked who at the DWP spoke to the ICO & & agreed to look at it & why they are not considering the recommendation. I am awaiting the complaint response. In my complaint I also asked the DWP once again about the legislation 38(2) that they are using & told them to prove to me it’s not for health documentation. It is for health documentation for PIP claims/reviews. I reiterated it is a misuse of legislation & therefore illegal. I’ll see what they say when they respond. I asked my MP to clarify the legislation with lawyers in the House of Commons. He sent my complaint to specialists in the HOC for me. Again I am just waiting for the response from them. More people need to do the same. It’s wrong, it’s in invasion of privacy & they must be challenged.
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You need to complain to the DWP & the ICO as I have.
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I was asked to provide more bank statements a couple of months ago. I asked the DWP if they were going to accept redacted bank statements, given what the ICO suggested/recommended to the DWP. The UCR team told me they haven’t received anything from the ICO. So I put in another formal complaint to the DWP demanding to know why they are lying to me, they have the letter from the ICO. I also asked who at the DWP spoke to the ICO & & agreed to look at it & why they are not considering the recommendation. I am awaiting the complaint response. In my complaint I also asked the DWP once again about the legislation 38(2) that they are using & told them to prove to me it’s not for health documentation. It is for health documentation for PIP claims/reviews. I reiterated it is a misuse of legislation & therefore illegal. I’ll see what they say when they respond. I asked my MP to clarify the legislation with lawyers in the House of Commons. He sent my complaint to specialists in the HOC for me. Again I am just waiting for the response from them. More people need to do the same. It’s wrong, it’s in invasion of privacy & they must be challenged.
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Hi! About 15 of us so far have been successful, we have a complaints template letter that quotes the legislation that they are breaking. We've only sent statements showing out regular income and more people are currently going through the process. I have shared your post on the groups page. Thank you again, the more of us that speak up and fight back the weaker they become. Your information and experiences have really helped us, shown us other avenues we can take. Reporting them to the ICO being one of them x
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THat should have said review closed not claim closed sorry, I only just realised I wrote the wrong thing!
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Any way of sharing the info via message? I don’t use Facebook so unfortunately can’t join the group.
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Yes at least 15 of us have been successful so far using the complaints template. We've shown regular monthly income only, wages, benefits pensions etc and redact everything else. We've refused to send a pic of ID held up to face as well as ID is validated in JC at the start of the claim. People who started in covid offer to go into the nearest JC with ID to verify in person. It works!!!
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I’m so glad people are standing their ground. This whole process is wrong and people are bullied into things at the threat of losing their income they are entitled to.
Is there any way you could send me the template via private message as a family member might be asked at some point and it would be very useful.Thanks for what you are doing!
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I could post it here, would that help?
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