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

My mother, the same as me, has nothing to hide, so doesn’t worry us at all. There are no strings attached to receiving the state pension (yet!) If the Government feel the winter cold weather payments should be means tested at some point in the future, then that’s the way it will be. Some benefits do have strings attached,such as savings being a certain amount or checking for other income suggesting employment when claiming, or child benefit claimants above the threshold.

Maybe they can use it to calculate a couples income for child benefit so that this unfair system can be overruled.

Apparently they don't have the ability to check if people earn over £50k per person which leaves some in the situation where one can be earning £60k and the other nothing and therefore not get child benefit. It two people earning £50k each can.

To be fair I thought they already could but I've long thought that it must contravene some form of privacy/data laws

I'm on legitimately claimed benefits and have absolutely nothing to hide but I absolutely do mind organisations checking how or what I spend my money on
On the rates of benefits, I'm hardly likely to have any hidden savings
This country is getting ridiculous
Applying for a blue badge needs every proof imaginable except a dna sample

They knew how much my mortgage is and when I last renewed it, well HMRC did. I found this out when I had to reset security questions on my tax free childcare account. If they wanted to know your bank info I expect they can quite easily do so. I'm not in agreement with it BTW, but I'm not sure there is much we can do except go cash in hand.....

I think it is a gross invasion of privacy and thin end of the wedge.

They will be able to check other bank accounts that interact with yours. Birthday money in? Then that account can also be checked.

How long before spending is scrutinised. Again we are sleep walking into scary territory.

I think all the posters saying ‘I have nothing to hide’ are very naive, missing the point and incapable of seeing how this will be misused.

No-one should be allowed to access your accounts without the bank notifying you. I’ve worked my whole life, never committed a crime and I value my rights.

It won’t be used to prove a parent isn’t paying maintenance when they should be. That’s money which belongs to the other parent and not the government - so it won’t be a priority.

It’ll be used to try and find excuses not to pay poor people benefits. eg, when my ex DH and I separated we sold our house and split the profits. I claimed universal credit for our two young children. There’s a UC clause that says when you sell your house, you have six months to buy another property with the proceeds, without your benefits being affected. Because I’m an honest person, I told UC that I had £20k in my account from my house sale and I’d notify them asap once I’d bought a new house (we were staying in temporarily emergency accommodation because my ex was abusive).

UC stopped my benefits, didn’t reply to any of my contact with them through the online site, and put me in a very difficult financial position. I needed every penny of that £20k for a mortgage deposit and was eating into it for five months because they’d stopped my benefits. I made a complaint which they ignored, I had to involve my MP and only then did they reinstate my benefits (backdated) without a word of apology to me. I’ll never volunteer that information if I move home again. They can’t be trusted to do the right thing and don’t care if they put honest, hard working people into financial difficulty.

My ex hasn’t paid child maintenance for over three years. He’s self employed. I can’t do anything about it. Why can’t they do something about that?!! And why are they not?

They 100% definitely can as they called me in for a Compliance Interview over some money I had in an online only Post Office account. I had no idea that I had the account as I'd set it up when I was profoundly mentally unwell.

The Post Office is underwritten by the Bank of Ireland so they kept telling me they had proof that I had money in Ireland. Totally messed with my head and I was going out of my mind thinking someone had perpetrated a serious fraud in my name or something. I kept telling them I'm not Irish and I've only visited Ireland as a tourist.

Anyway it was me, I had set up a monthly outgoing amount to an online only zero communication paperless no postal statement account many years earlier and totally had no idea.

They were OK about it, they were just pointing out I hadn't mentioned it. Well I was thrilled as they had found some money I had no idea about. I still have that account and to this day, there is no way you'd know you have money because the Post Office make absolute zero contact. Strange.

But they KNEW already every single account I have, even old dead ones with no money.

I wouldn't mind at all as long as long as it was all carefully done.

This reminds me of the time I came across a random folder in a drawer and opened it to find, amongst other things, the details of a savings account I had set up when I was also profoundly mentally unwell. I had no recollection of it at all. Turns out there was only £100 in there but it was a nice, if disturbing, surprise nonetheless.

I have nothing to hide but they want to control everything, im not happy about this

I bet they would not let us look at theirs.

Aww, I'm sorry you struggle with your mental health as well. I guess we're better off being unwitting savers than spenders (or at least in my case). The DWP were very kind to me and suggested I'd be far better spending all my money on things I need than squirrelling it!

so does anybody know what exactly stage this is at i thought it was supposed to be in the autumn speech but didnt notice it mentioned

Genuinely don’t see an issue with this, because it’s information they likely have or can access anyway

Course they do (see my posts above)

I don't follow the news but if this is a news story being widely announced, then what they're actually doing is ushering in a new found level of openness about what do, announcing it as a new thing. It's not new. But they're going to stop keeping it secret and make it public knowledge.

If it stops money laundering / fraud / benefits fraud ie people overseas with active disability claims and social housing flats they're renting out... then I'm all for it.

^thanks

to add to my earlier post - on a personal level, I don’t really have an issue with the govt checking my bank transactions either

Bank staff can access that already, ie money laundering/fraud investigations - it’s not like my accounts are completely for my eyes only. Having the govt sight the same accounts for a legitimate purpose doesn’t feel any different. It’s not like they have much power over people with ordinary transactions anyway - they wouldn’t care about bank accounts under saving thresholds for example so the argument about monitoring isn’t compelling. As long as staff are properly trained and audited when using it - presumably governance will be in practice and only certain staff can have access.

No not without a court order or ypur consent

Well that would most lukely be because they were receivung tax on the interest

@catskittens Xmas is what I’d read

it's not a good idea.

It will start off as looking for benefit reason then it will become an automatic requirement.

The annoying this is that they targetting the vulnerable in society which is sad.

They need to close the tax loop hole for those with non-domcillary status and those that have off shore bank accounts. So if they can look into David Cameron Panama bank account I'm all for it. But I don't believe it the rich they are targeting.

You're so right but the freedoms we have are a pretense nowadays and sometimes I think well at least they're letting us openly know we ain't free at all

If they were interested in scrutinising money (which I'm sure they somewhat are) then they'd be looking for drug dealers, arms dealers, black market economy gigs, and people trafickers.

Also as many have mentioned, go for the offshore banking and offshore accounts, the tax exempt, the tax evaders, and the corporations that don't have to pay tax.

Quite. They've passed measures to keep MP expenses more secret, of course.