Government to require banks to do monthly checks on the accounts of people on benefits and report back

[IncompleteSenten]

I read about this here.

metro.co.uk/2023/11/06/benefits-claimants-to-have-bank-accounts-checked-monthly-in-crackdown-19779875/

Do you think they will do it or it'll be blocked?

It sounds awful. If I was on unemployment benefit I'd feel really humiliated. I understand fraud happens but bloody hell this is really not on.

Ah you are so correct.
So the only solution will be for ALL accounts to be scrutinised just in case they are owned by a benefits recipient. And thus does the mechanism of totalitarianism extend its grasp.

This sort of prying into how people spend their money is absolutely disgusting. It seems as if we're moving to a cashless society which will make it easier for everyone's spending to be scrutinised.

I'm usually in the 'if you have nothing to hide' camp, but not with this.

I'm an ex police officer. If I suspected someone of a crime and wanted to check their financial accounts as part of my investigation, I'd have to make a case against various checks and balances for being allowed to do that because it's a huge invasion of someone's privacy. Yet in this case we're saying we're going to do that for people who aren't accused of anything at all. It's a fishing trip and equates being on benefits with a crime. I find that quite alarming actually! The DWP can already demand to see your incomings/outgoings etc if they suspect you of fraud. That's sufficient.

They already do spot checks with UC claiments, asking for bank statements etc. Why the need to have your own bank spy on you as well?

I imagine they will be using AI to do it anyway.

Also, this would be the chapter in the book I would write, before the chapter on "How we went crypto". Which is another Tory wetdream. I was at a blockchain event where it was mentioned that crypto provides a way of implementing dual value currencies (one for them. and one-tenth for us). The politicians were more interested than the techies in that one.

Given a large proportion of people claiming UC also work how will they decide what is being spent? Or are they going to tell people in lower paid jobs what they can spend their wages on?

This is just not on. And I doubt it will ever be implemented.

Yes, by all means ,check how much savings (grandly known as Capital to the DWP) benefits claimants have got - but do it by asking the claimant to provide statements. I think this happens occasionally already.

In the late 1990s some of my elderly CAB clients on Income Support were dismayed to learn that they could not give money to their DC like any ordinary person, as this would count as Deprivation of Capital. (These were people with a few thousand pounds, not change from downsizing or anything, all they had left at the end of their working lives.) It was their choice whether or not to do so, but if they did give money to their DC, their benefit would continue to be calculated as if they still had it.

HMRC and the police can ask banks for information about bank accounts. Rightly so - they are after actual criminals (even if some of whom go by the name of tax-dodgers)

No reason to go after people with illnesses, disabilities, or other reasons for finding themselves living on a pittance through no fault of their own

And yes there is a black economy. The country would not run without it. It's at every level. Celeb freebies, a pair of grouse you shot at the weekend, all income that nobody taxes.

Are they hiving the costs off to the banks?

Because my first thought was that this sounds like another example of the government expecting the private sector to fulfil their functions for them, eg with the right to rent checks and immigrants.

They would be better off checking the accounts of the super rich.

@Onethingatatime23 The super rich know all the tricks to enable them to stay super rich.

It is to do with how much they have in SAVINGS - how many will actually breach the £16k limit?

Typical so many here wilfully misunderstanding what is being attempted. If everyone was honest and do not have > £16k to use for living expenses it would not be necessary.

Once they fall below the £16k (which most will not have anyway) - benefits will resume.

I just can’t find it in me to be surprised at how inhumane this system can be. I’ve gone from a married high earner to a single carer of my profoundly disabled dc.

Let them look. They can see for themselves the yawning black pit I have to cry at when I optimistically go to a cash point.

And I’m actually one of the people who are better off. While I still had some fight left I managed to get dc their disability benefits awarded indefinitely. So we have some stability at least.

Well this just confirms even more what this government thinks of those on benefits. The kind of person who isn't going to declare their savings in order to defraud the DWP will hardly be hiding the money in their Nat West savings account.

This is just another soundbite like stop the boats. It's appealing to their own voters to make the Tories seem tough and like they are actually doing something. They make me sick.

Will they be having access to all their mates offshore accounts to make sure that no tax evasion is going on? No. I didn't think so.

General Election can't come soon enough.

Well this just confirms even more what this government thinks of those on benefits.

And the people who elected it ....

Child benefit claimants must be on the list too .

How’s it going to work?

if I have 40k with nationwide and I get benefits paid into a natwest account? Afaik the banks don’t talk to each other? I don’t claim benefits btw.

I wonder what is classed as fraud under dwp legislation? I understand that they want banks to alert them about red flags such as savings but would child maintenance payments be considered as undeclared income? Would that be fraud in this case?
It's all so complicated. Also I am not sure if DWP have the time to check every claimant's bank statements to see every outgoing expense

I thought this exactly.

What a waste of bloody time. I hate our government.

i Just dont understand.

UC is linked to your income and savings.
DWP already can ask fir copies of all bank statements etc… and will know which accounts you have.
What you spend you money on has no relationship with UC and fitting into the criteria.

So WHAT IS THE POINT??

Artificial Intelligence will do this cheaply and easily. I wouldn't imagine that it will cost very much to do, and all claimants will have to provide authorisation to receive the money.

Sounds like yet another ill thought out hare brained idea.
How is that going to be done? Realistically HMRC has been struggling to cope for a long time. Couldn't cope with furlough or Covid, can't cope now. So, which government agency is going to do this? is the HMRC or someone else and how are they gonna do it - they won't be able to cope.

yeah I was going to say this.. Plus none of the banks (or HMRC) can employ enough people to even answer the phones so how will they manage the truly unbelievably onerous task here? Costs of thousands of additional staff would far outweigh any benefit. Plus - just stupid. What about non means tested benefits like DLA?

Instead of signing on, there was 90 days of training at the Job Centre, five days a week, followed by three months of compulsory volunteering. About half the claimants stopped claiming before the trial finished. Or so I read earlier

Were they rewriting the whole dictionary There is no such thing as compulsory volunteering. The two words cancel each other out. They just didnt want to say workfare. And what happened after they stopped claiming? Did the crime rate go up in that area?

Govt are also going to be getting info from eBay to catch people selling stuff and not paying taxes (where they are due)

Artificial Intelligence will do this cheaply and easily.

And wrong. You forgot "wrong".