Are you happy for the government to automatically have the ability to have a look at your bank account?

[LeRougeEtLeNoir]

So the government wants (and very likely will get) the ability to look at the bank account of anyone receiving

• UC
• a pension
• child benefit
• PIP etc…

How comfortable are you to see them been able to do that? Even though a pension or child benefit isn’t income related so there is no fraud to tackle. And they won’t tell you about it either. I mean that’s about every single one of us there.

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/new-legislation-gives-government-permission-to-snoop-on-your-bank-account-364408/?fbclid=IwAR3XA89weQHzsIEN7A2TSigPcWM183fGKTkH7ByaainNVTcgeR8e0RXAr24

Agree. They might as well have CCTV in my house.

I live in a 'gentrified' area. We have CCTV everywhere in my estate plus on the public footpaths and every single premises and shop in the wider area has facial recognition - there's security watching banks of cameras who radio down to a foot patrol security.

Our flats were fitted with built in smart meters on every single utility including the water, 'heat transfer', and electric, that send a signal every half a second. The wifi is fibre to cabinet and only operated by limited suppliers (a form of monopoly) and every single thing I do online can be directly and easily monitored. There's local wifi that your phone snaps onto once you're outside owned by the local area private development company.

If I didn't come home for a few hours or a few days, then my utility suppliers know by default that I'm not turning lights on, running tap water, using the heating or hot water, or flushing the toilet, or using my wifi. They're already on that level of data. This estate is 10 yrs old so this isn't 'new'.

If the DWP or Inland Revenue or Police etc wanted to 'profile' my entire life including whether I have showers or baths it wouldn't take a minute.

I have nothing to hide but I wouldn't want it and I don't like the idea of it, it's far too intrusive. If they have a question mark over someone, get a warrant
I can see this going wrong 😑

I remember a comment on MN from a lady who was investigated because she sold a pair of second hand kid's shoes on eBay. Her ex reported it, and it fucked her life up for ages.

What a nightmare scenario!

Thise on low incomes will have no way out, no nice things.

I always remember when income support was removed for free tuition fees at college. It meant that courses like Access became inaccessible to those on income support such as lone parents.

This seemed very shortsighted to me as the Access courses were things like Access to nursing or teaching or social work. Why not support for that year then these people could go into the professional degree and become qualified. It just felt like a way to keep people down.

@LittleMissSunshiner I habitually switch my phone to mobile data when I leave my home. Not sure if that 100% stops things eg the knowing which poster you walked past etc

In 2020, I noticed banks had signs up about connecting to their wfi so switched my phone to airplane mode. In that period, I went for walks without my phone and just told mum she'd have to cope if there was an emergency.

In theory, my new place was all smart meters but in practice it hasn't worked out, which I like. I lost count of the number of times I had to refuse a smart meter in my old place.

They already have the power to look.

This is how they ‘discover’ people are claiming benefits whilst being over the capital threshold. Many have been caught (usually pensioners) in my line of work, so no idea why they’re pretending this is new.

I hate the intrusion though.

It’s the same old same old from the Tories. They’ll look at everyone’s bank accounts except the very wealthy or those with offshore assets (ie the ones actually ‘mitigating’ the largest amounts of tax that would otherwise be due).

Their mates who made millions as ‘middlemen’ supplying unusable / unsafe PPI, or who cynically shorted the pound during Brexit whilst declaring we’d be a stronger country outside of Europe.

Sunak’s wife won’t have her bank accounts rifled through. Nor will Rees Mog. Or Michelle Mone.

I've been saying this as it happened to me!

They called me for a compliance interview having already been through every single account (dead and alive) that I had in my name, DOB, and NI no.

I wouldn't mind but it was a tiny issue and probably cost them a lot of time and money to conduct... not sure why really come to think of it... or what the point was.

I don't receive any of those and all my finances are in order and above board so I've nothing to hide, and there's nothing exciting in my accounts.

But I think its intrusive and inherently wrong.

It's an invasion of privacy imo

It happens. They check and often the review is because they’ve already found their ‘smoking gun’.

Sometimes it’s fruitful, sometimes it isn’t, but you can guarantee they’ll have been all up in your business before they even contact you. Sneaky buggers have been at it for a while.

No it's not. You're entitled to claim it irrespective of your income but you are liable to an equal tax charge when your income exceeds a certain limit.

Yes but you are allowed to sell £1000 a year on places like eBay and VInted before you have to pay tax if you are over the personal tax allowance, its similar to you can get a certain amount of interest on savings before you pay tax.

Though I don't know what happens if you sell something like a car on eBay, DH bought a small boat off someone for around £2K, I can't imagine that people rush to declare the tax, there must be more to it than just selling over £1k worth of stuff.

use more cash people
if this goes ahead i will just keep to what i do now l
£1600 pm leave £800 in for direct debits etc take out in cash £200 a week and use as needed

i do use cash quite a bit it works for me and keeps my spending in check
i dont agree with what they want to do and we know it wont end there

Yes but you are allowed to sell £1000 a year on places like eBay and VInted before you have to pay tax if you are over the personal tax allowance, its similar to you can get a certain amount of interest on savings before you pay tax.

Fotvtax purposes but what about for UC? Would it be classed as income?

Why not use the AI technology to automatically monitor businesses instead?
Are they paying all tax due etc.

Why target those that have the least?

Exactly.
All this alongside the terrorist laws which seem pretty much anyone against the rhetoric a threat to the country. De-banking those who don't agree. Cancelling those who speak out.
Not long until the social credit system is brought in, cashless society, 15 minute cities, microchips, one world government, lockdowns due to "climate change", ect.
Mulitple "conspiracy theories" are coming closer to existence due to our complacency. How long till, "sorry madam, you can't but that item as you've exceeded your carbon credits this month".

Wouldn't bother me. There's nothing out of the ordinary and hundreds of thousands exactly like me. Frank from HMRC won't have time or inclination to judging me for ordering JustEat last night because I couldn't be arsed making mash to go with the pie I already had in.

*Why target those that have the least?"

Exactly
Easy target, innit 😡😡

Frank from HMRC won't have time or inclination to judging me for ordering JustEat last night because I couldn't be arsed making mash to go with the pie I already had in.

But that’s not what they are going use that data for. They can already do that when they do punctual checks.

They are going to use it to extract information. Infirmation that can be sold, just like they’ve sold our health data.

Information that will lead to new rules on what benefits can be used for or how much to give people. Information to ‘judge’ groups of people (from line parents to MW workers etc etc)
On a personal pov, i doubt anyone would come and judge you fir buying a takeaway. But they might decide that they are giving too much if you can afford said takeaway *remember the ‘people can’t buy houses because they a coffee at Costa!). Or that ‘people just spend their money on crap’ so we will give them vouchers or even better a weekly shop instead - like they did with the free school lunches (remember those awful packs they gave to replace free school meals?).
Or they might put limits on your account on how much you can spend on specific products (such as takeaways) as they do in China….

This is so naive it is cute.

I wish I trusted the government like this!

It wouldn’t bother me at all.

Do you claim the benefits mentioned?

You may want to rethink your stance because this isn't about them wanting to know if you spend on just eat.

My only concern would be security related, and whether there could potentially be any risk of anything being removed from my account, or my private details made public.....
But I've nothing to hide and bugger all in my bank account, so them "looking at it" doesn't bother me....

You don't value your privacy?

I genuinely don't understand why you trust the government to this extent.

Do you believe the government are always good? Or do you not care if a bad government has access to your private information?

Do you leave your door unlocked because you trust the general public, or is it just the government you have blind faith in?