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UK Government set to extend powers for benefit fraud investigators

19 Oct 2024 3 minute read
Liz Kendall, Work and Pensions Secretary. Photo Lucy North/PA Wire

Welfare fraud investigators will be given the power to take money directly from pay slips as part of plans to crack down on fraudsters, it has been reported.

The measure is one of several far-reaching powers set to be included in the Government’s forthcoming Fraud, Error and Debt Bill, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

The Bill, announced by the Prime Minister during the Labour Party conference in September, is intended to target benefit fraud by “modernising” the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in an effort to save £1.6 billion over the next five years.

Court order

Currently, investigators must secure a court order before deducting money from someone’s wages or bank accounts.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said it was “absurd” that investigators’ powers had not been updated in the last 20 years.

She said: “My team are still, in 2024, sending letters to gather evidence for those suspected of welfare fraud, slowing them down to a snail’s pace when they could be shutting down serious fraud cases.

“Our bill will give them similar powers as HMRC to investigate fraudsters – it’s time we give them the tools they need for the fight.”

Deduct money

As well as the power to deduct money directly from the wages of people who have overclaimed on benefits, the Bill is reported to give investigators the ability to compel information about suspected fraudsters from all private companies, not just banks, utilities and employers.

But it will not extend to the state pension, which Ms Kendall said would not have been “proportionate”.

She said the enhanced information-gathering powers would allow the state to “stop serious fraud in its tracks by making sure people really are who they say they are”.

But the plans have sparked alarm among privacy campaigners, with Big Brother Watch describing them as “Orwellian” and “a major expansion of government power” that threatened the presumption of innocence.

Ms Kendall dismissed claims that the Government would be “snooping” on people’s bank accounts as “nonsense” and insisted there would be human oversight of automated alerts flagging potential fraud.

Similar proposals put forward by the previous government passed the House of Commons but were unable to pass the Lords before Parliament was dissolved for the General Election.

The Government claims fraud and error in the welfare system costs the taxpayer £10 billion a year, while the Chancellor is reported to be considering tax rises and spending cuts worth £40 billion at this month’s Budget in order to avoid a return to austerity.

The expected savings delivered by the Government’s latest proposals amount to an average of £320 million per year.


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Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
19 days ago

From the cradle to the grave…

Wes Streeting will be our weight watcher,

Liz Kendall our bank watcher,

While the Von Bumbles will remove any warmth from the lives of millions of old people and the security of millions of young people…

Homo Superior walks among us…

hdavies15
hdavies15
19 days ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

Sounds like they have all been to the school of distraction politics. Elite cliques are now well insulated from the cold blasts of government policies.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
19 days ago
Reply to  hdavies15

Mengele meet Stalin…more nasty weirdos than one can shake a stick at…

The Meddling Classes in their new guise…

Last edited 19 days ago by Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
19 days ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

Kenan Malik in the Guardian has a good piece…

Frank
Frank
19 days ago

Who’s watching the MPs fiddling?

Linda Jones
Linda Jones
19 days ago

Surprise surprise!!! Reeves husband top dog at DWP. Go after the little people nothing on tax fraud clampdown. Maybe tha serves their purpose?

Margaret Helen Parish
Margaret Helen Parish
19 days ago

Time we voted for anyone but LABOUR…that should be the campaign!!!

Charles Coombes
Charles Coombes
19 days ago

Stop!! Go after the Millionaire and Billionaire tax dodgers!

Padi Phillips
Padi Phillips
19 days ago

Utterly reprehensible. Anyone accused of breaking the law should at the very least be subject to due process. The DWP has long been known as being unfit to police itself and anyone would know if they are aware of how it has operated for the last 20 years, and particularly under the last unsavoury bunch in government, and now apparently under this one. Witholding reports that are likely to show the department under a bad light, such as its actions being at least partially responsible for at least 300,000 premature deaths and the mistreatement of seriously sick and disabled people… Read more »

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
19 days ago
Reply to  Padi Phillips

Amen to that Padi…

Lord Custard
Lord Custard
19 days ago

The trouble is the DWP are so understaffed they do not check overpayments properly. The chances of them getting this right in all cases is zero. Trying to challenge a decision by the DWP takes months if not years. So what happens when they make a mistake and take thousands wrongfully of vulnerable people? Labour seems to be governing on behalf of the Daily Mail. If they are concerned about taxpayers how about clawing back excess profits from dodgy PFI’s? How about shutting down tax havens? How about stopping multinationals moving profits around to dodge tax in the UK? There… Read more »

Steve Woods
Steve Woods
18 days ago

Tax fraud and avoidance/evasion by the rich is estimated to outstrip benefit fraud many times over.

However, as per usual the alleged government finds it easier to punch down than punch up.

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