Wide-ranging powers will let the DWP access your bank account or wages and compel travel companies to hand over information about your holidays
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is to get the power to take money directly from people’s bank accounts and pay packets as part of a new crackdown on benefit fraud The DWP will also have the power to tell companies such as airlines to hand over information about customers – so investigators can work out how claimants are spending their money.
UK taxpayers lost £7.3billion to benefit fraud last year – and the DWP is to get new powers to cut that figure by investigating anyone believed to be making false claims, and clawing the money back.
Writing in The Telegraph, Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary said: “We’re in an absurd situation where DWP
At present, if the DWP wants to get money back from people who have been overpaid benefits it has to take them to court. The new powers will let the Government take the money directly from wages and bank accounts. If those who have falsely claimed have died, the DWP will be able to take money from their estates.
Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, told The Telegraph: “This blank cheque to force private companies to snoop and report on the country’s poorest citizens to the state is intrusive, excessive and will create a culture of fear among millions of people claiming benefits.
The government’s Fraud, Error and Debt Bill is an enhanced version of one created by the previous Government.