ESA WARNING ACCESS TO BANK ACCOUNTS WITHOUT CONSENT

I remember on a PIP form a while ago they actually asked what you spent your money on each week. Can they see that also? I notice they don't ask any more.

kevin52 said:

In Short Its Now A Police State , whats It got to Do With Anyone how much Money You Have In Your Bank , the Reson The Money In Your Bank Is Its Yours .

Not if you wish to claim benefits.
Even on a low income, if you get a top up or HB, they will want your pay slips and bank statements.
What's the big deal?

Haven't you got the sugar tax on everything? 
Some drinks are disgusting without sugar in it. 
Though it's not effected old stock. I bought a bottle with 40g of sugar in it for 60p. The price attracted me as I assumed it was low because of that! Wrong. Old stock.

whistles said:

Victoriad said:

Link Not working for me either....has the DWP been spying on it

Found this but February.

The puzzling thing is, how do members of the public know your business.


https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/01/spy-on-your-neighbour-britain-demonisation-benefit-claimants-disabled-people

Not really hard to know someones business if you see them every day and for years, superficially.
Someone i know gets the highest rate and is easily able to stand up for over 30 minutes unaided, able to go out several times a day on their own and does that, is able to carry heavy, bulky items all the time but it may be they need someone to dress and wash them and feed them. So although just from seeing them every day it appears they don't need help with anything but obviously you don't see personal things like grooming or getting dressed. Hidden disabilities can sometimes be too well hidden and this is the problem.

Hidden disabilities is kind of good, at least they get rid of the stereotype that disabled people are *whatever* but they also can cause some confusion around whether a person actually is disabled or not because people can't tell.

But if it's good enough for assessors to say they can see that someone is not disabled then why not the general public? If they are psychic and supposed to be the experts then of course it makes sense that other people may be psychic too and have a list of set criteria in their head about what a disabled person should look like and act like.

Have a few snails in garden but throw them on the barbey?

I understood that if you have no more than 5 or 6 grand in savings, that is ok! When I was on JSA waiting to recieve ESA, all I had was £12 quid. Told the dole my problem, all she said was I can give you the phone number of the local food bank!! All I have in money pays for just being alive, if I end up back on the dole what next. Over dose!!   

tomm said:

to eveyone who wanted to browse the link i supplied it is still working  just copy and paste into a new tab for some reason it is getting redirected  by this forum

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2015/responding-to-nothing-to-hide-nothing-to-fear

It doesn't really say anything to be fair. 
We know we are the most watched country. 
Perhaps with all the new data protection laws some of that will be stopped. 
The fact is, if you claim benefits you are monitored. They do want to know what finances come in. 
If you say you can't work and you do it will flag you up.

I would be more concerned about Alexa being in the news and what that logs about you. 
Though not really a surprise, it shouldn't be.

Hi @whistles it is not unusual in these sort of discussions that if you do not have something to hide you have nothing to worry about comes up. The article points out that this can be fallacy. 

The Stephen Lawrence case is one that has angered me for years for the way the family was treated.

One of the earliest lines of enquiry was why was this young black man in an area which was primarily white. I lived in this area and know it well. The bus stop was just after a large roundabout and on the opposite side was a large cinema, and it also served as a crossroad for busses in three different directions. 

The police screwed up major with an initial assumption that he must have been up to something, knowing the local station at the time this does not surprise me. The surveilance set up against the family was not part of the investigation, or even a belief that they were guilty of something, it was to get dirt on them and to shut them up. It was an abuse of power against a family grieving for the lost of their son and a police force which initially investigated him rather than the crime committed, and were completely incompetant in their investigation of the murder.

Despite being given leads to the main suspects and having reasonable grounds to arrest them within a couple of days of the murder they were not because, as the Detective Superintendent in charge of the enquiry 'did not realise they could be arrested on grounds of reasonable suspicion'. Something I know from experience was not a general issue when it suited them. 

The idea that you have nothing to worry about is bogus big time. Try being a single mother whose partner has disappeared because he was a police officer investigating you, or that they have been keeping track of you through misuse of their position.

To bring this to the present, you have a large government department who have constantly been caught lying to the public and parliament, criticised for misuse of official statistics and handed out sanctions like smarties for percieved breaches of the rules - including not attending meetings because they have been in hospital. The question has to be asked how confident we can be in them using their powers in a reasonable and responsible way? Especially when they have made their feelings concerning disabled people so publicly.

Personally I do believe that some of the concerns expressed on the community are an over reaction, but I can fully understand why this happens.

Just like we have nothing to fear if we haven't done anything wrong, we all know someone who is defrauding the benefit system though 85% of cases reported by the public nothing is found. Dangerous assumptions that hopefully most people won't suffer from, but can be life changing, or even life ending for those who are.

Fortunately I will never need this, I'm lucky, but many of my friends do, all this is sign of the times, all this has done is turn people into whistle blowers, which in turn turns everyone against everyone, I don't really care what someone else has, I'm not the jealous type, but I do care that maybe someone has a little bit of good fortune and someone else persecutes them for it, maybe it would be a good idea if all the immigrants over here was stopped claiming money for their 21 kids and 2 wife's who live abroad and ain't even UK nationals! 
That is happening more and more frequently and nothing is said about it, well I've said something, also nothing is said when a MP uses TAX PAYERS money to build and extension to his house or something else! i.e. Julie Kirkbride, a conservative MP used tax payers money to build an £50,000 extension to her flat so her brother could live in it!
If you want to talk about fraud, these are the people you should be talking to and not condemning your neighbor cause he had a little bit of luck! 
Our elected officials are the worst offenders of fraud and tax evasion you will ever see, not your neighbor, stop whistle blowing and get a life and maybe it would be a good idea if you did, they would tell the accused who did it! if you feel big enough to do it, then be big enough to admit and face the one you are accusing instead of behaving like cowards.