“Imposing suspicionless algorithmic surveillance on the entire public has the makings of a Horizon-style scandal – with vulnerable people most likely to bear the brunt when these systems go wrong,” they wrote to Kendall, referring to the Post Office software that resulted in the wrongful imprisonment of post office operators. “Pensioners, disabled people, and carers shouldn’t have to live in fear of the government prying into their finances.”
The warning comes amid widening use of artificial intelligence in government departments, with about 70% of them estimated to be piloting or planning to use AI, according to the National Audit Office spending watchdog.
Welfare algorithms are far from faultless. It emerged in the summer that DWP software had wrongly flagged more than 200,000 people for investigation for suspected fraud and error.
The Department for Work and Pensions has been approached for comment.
