Plans to allow DWP to snoop on benefit claimant bank accounts scrapped – reports

The UK Government has abandoned plans to snoop of welfare claimants’ bank accounts to check for fraud, according to reports.

Chancellor John Healey has scrapped the plan which would have allowed Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) officials to see the savings of people trying to claim universal cCredit, the Telegraph newspaper reported.

Those with more than £16,000 in savings are ineligible to claim unemployment benefits, under universal credit rules.

Rachel Reeves had announced the plans when she was chancellor, and claimed they would saved £200 million a year in benefit fraud.

The Government has replaced the counter-fraud proposals with a new scheme which will see banks conduct checks on welfare claimants’ accounts after they have received universal credit, and then report back to ministers, the Telegraph said.

But the newspaper suggested the change could lead to higher levels of fraud going undetected.