UK spying bank accounts: Eligibility Verification Measure

It is important to clarify that banks will not be required to monitor every customer account. The proposed legislation does not introduce blanket surveillance, rather, it authorises a more targeted approach.

If enacted, the bill would grant the Department for Work and Pensions new powers to issue an Eligibility Verification Notice. This would compel banks to provide financial information about individuals who are claiming, or even just applying for, certain benefits.

The crucial change lies in the threshold for state access. At present, the DWP may only request such information where there is a reasonable suspicion of fraud. Under the proposed reforms, this safeguard would be removed. Merely making a claim for support could prompt the DWP to request account details directly from the claimant’s bank, regardless of any suspicion of wrongdoing.

Thus, while banks are not being asked to monitor everyone, they could be obliged to supply information about selected accounts identified by the DWP, without notifying the account holder. This is the central concern, targeted, covert access to private finances without consent or cause.

This proposal goes beyond a narrow focus on fraud prevention. It raises pressing questions about transparency, proportionality, and the expansion of state authority into private financial matters. Understandably, many, including myself, find such a shift deeply troubling.

That was interesting about Switzerland’s banking system. I do not know much about the Swiss banking system, but I do know how things have worked here in the UK for decades. Banks already run 24/7 algorithmic checks for suspicious activity, which is standard under anti-money laundering and fraud rules.

My concern with this Bill is not just the surveillance, it is the shift in tone. It reads as though claimants cannot be trusted to tell the truth, so the system will quietly check behind their backs instead.

And it does not stop there. The Bill also gives the DWP powers to recover money directly from people’s bank accounts and to ask the courts to suspend driving licences where welfare debts are unpaid.

Surely the claimant has a right to know if there is a problem with their benefits or claim, not just receive something out of the blue. That would be incredibly distressing. Transparency should be the baseline. If there is a query, why not simply ask the claimant for bank statements and explain what is being looked at?

Without proper safeguards, this approach risks normalising the quiet erosion of privacy, one automated check at a time.