Campaign Groups Warn ‘Welfare Surveillance’ Proposals Could See People’s Bank Details Shared With State

File photo dated 18/12/2014 of the Department for Work & Pensions office in London. (John Stillwell/PA Wire)

An upcoming bill that could give the state extra powers to carry out checks on those who claim benefits is “welfare surveillance,” that will force banks to monitor millions of bank accounts on an unprecedented level, say privacy campaigners.

The Data Protection and Digital Information Bill is due to be voted through the report stage in House of Commons on Wednesday. It is a few steps away from becoming law, as it needs to pass the Lords and Final Stages.

However, privacy and data campaigners have warned that potentially monitoring millions of people sets “an incredibly dangerous precedent.”

A government spokesperson told The Epoch Times by email: “These suggestions are entirely misleading. The measures will allow us to take the fight to benefit fraudsters who are intent on ripping off the public purse, saving taxpayers £600 million over the next five years.

“We are protecting the privacy of individuals by only accessing data in cases where there is a potential signal of fraud or error, and only requesting the minimum information needed to enable further query.

“As benefit claimants self-verify their own capital during the application process, these changes allow us to proactively spot increases which push claimants over the savings threshold of £16,000, and alert authorities to instances where claimants are spending more time abroad than the rules allow.”

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The wide-ranging bill seeks to “improve how the nation uses and accesses personal data, capitalising on the UK’s departure from the European Union.”

For example, it will establish a “framework for the provision of digital verification services to enable digital identities to be used with the same confidence as paper documents.”

A recent amendment to the bill included changes with new powers to require data from third parties, particularly banks and financial organisations, to help the UK government “reduce benefit fraud.”

These amendments will be considered by the House of Commons today.

The government said that these proposals would allow regular “checks to be carried out on the bank accounts held by benefit claimants to spot increases in their savings which push them over the benefit eligibility threshold, or when people send more time overseas than the benefit rules allow for.”

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Mel Stride said that these powers “will be used proportionately.”

Force Financial Institutions to Hand Over Personal Information

Campaign groups have warned that this will force financial institutions to hand over personal information belonging to people who claim benefits from the state.

Writing on X (formally known as Twitter), Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo said the government “has added a huge bank spying clause in a late amendment to the Data Protection & Digital Information Bill.”

“It will force banks to monitor all bank accounts. It’s unreal,” she added.

In a report, Big Brother Watch noted that under current rules, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is already able to request bank account holders’ bank transaction details on a case-by-case basis if there is reasonable grounds to suspect fraud and that there are multiple powers for this purpose.

An undated image showing two activists holding up placards and wearing masks of policing minister Chris Philp (L) and Home Secretary Suella Braverman (R) outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London. (Big Brother Watch)

It added that proposed powers would “do away with the long-standing democratic principle in Britain that state surveillance should follow suspicion rather than vice versa.”

“It would be dangerous for everyone if the government reverses this presumption of innocence. This level of financial intrusion and monitoring affecting millions of people is highly likely to result in serious mistakes and sets an incredibly dangerous precedent,” it said.

Big Brother Watch warned that the government amendment could come into force only two months after the bill’s royal assent.

‘Data Could Easily be Misinterpreted’

The digital rights campaigning organisation Open Rights Group (ORG) said that the proposals will “remove safeguards and accountability for requesting financial data from institutions” and called it “welfare surveillance.”

They say that the DWP would be “allowed to bypass the safeguards enshrined”  in UK data protection law and gain access to UK residents’ bank accounts arbitrarily.

In a statement, ORG’s Legal and Policy Officer Mariano delli Santi said that he believes that this data could easily be misinterpreted and benefits sanctions incorrectly imposed.

“It could lead to some of the most vulnerable people facing unjust accusations of fraud, and potentially having their benefits removed and their lives destroyed,” he said.

“This is not just a hypothetical risk. In 2021 the Dutch government resigned amid an escalating scandal over child benefits in which more than 20,000 families were wrongly accused of fraud by the tax authority,” he added.

The Epoch Times contacted the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Department for Work and Pensions for comment.