DWP Tells Jobcentres Not To Refer Clients To Foodbanks

[CHEESEY13]

According to today's Guardian the DWP has instructed JobCentres to no longer point people to foodbanks - it is claimed that the referral slips that are issued, with client information details, may contravene data protection rules.
A person cannot access a foodbank without a recognised referral from various official sources including a Jobcentre.
The government have been irritated and embarassed by the proliferation of foodbanks and just wish they - and the needy - would vanish.
When Ian Duncan Smith was the DWP Minister, one of his senior advisors got caught warning the Trussel Trust that the DWP would find a way to close them down if they carried on highlighting government failings.
Looks like they're still trying to stamp on the foodbanks.......our caring, sharing DWP eh, Rishi?

That sounds like bollocks - as long as the client consents to their data being shared, there is no GDPR issue.

Interesting, it was the DWP that told me to use a food bank, due to them being unable to process my claim in time for me not to starve to death

This is rubbish. There is no GDPR issue if the client is the one sharing their data voluntarily, as in cases of food bank access. Journalism at it's very worse.

I don't think the journalism is to blame here.

Did you read the rest of the article? They are starting to issue slips in a new form.

The food banks are quoted as saying it will make it harder to access food parcels - however they can gather the information from the client themselves. They're not statutory bodies and can set their own rules. They choose to require referrals. They can amend that.

Data sharing of information gathered for benefits processing purposes is actually really complex, it's not necessary simple as the client says it's ok. There are other pieces of legislation that govern DWP's use of data. Data protection law is incredibly complex.

I certainly DID read the rest of the article, but did you? I rather believe not.......

This is the article in question:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/16/jobcentres-told-to-stop-referring-benefit-claimants-to-food-banks

According to the article, the old-style referral slips included the name of the claimant and brief family details.

The new slips are not referrals, they are "signposting slips", containing only information about the food bank – not about the claimant.

Because taking the old-style referral slip to the foodbank was the claimant's own choice, and they can consent or not consent, I don't see how this can be a GDPR breach.

Yes, as good practice the DWP should make sure the info contained on the slip is the minimum necessary to fulfil the purpose, but it would still need to contain the name of the person referred.

If there is no personal data on the slip at all, not even a name, then it's just an anonymous flier and the food bank has no way of knowing if the person who turns up with it just dug it out of a bin.

I used to volunteer at a trussel trust foodbank. We had our own red coloured forms which we gave to agencies that referred clients to us which just have clients name and address, number of adults and children the parcel is for and a brief reason for needing it (this info helped inform campaign work). DWP refused to use these as they don’t want to officially refer clients to food banks as that would be admitting to probs with their system. So instead they used their own form which included clients national insurance number. My understanding from talking to colleagues in other food banks that was that this was how DWPs behaved in other areas too tho I don’t know that for sure.

So yes, the old forms did include personal info that we definitely didn’t want or need and shouldn’t have been shared with us - so if DWP are still referring clients to foodbank but are finally using better forms, then that’s a good thing

just read the guardian report more carefully - and sounds like DWP have stopped doing anything more than giving list of opening times which is obvs terrible. But they definitely shouldn’t t have been sending us peoples national insurance numbers previously (one of my jobs in the office was to black out all the NI number data with a marker pen on the forms )

According to that article, the new slips don't contain the claimant's name or the other information you need at the foodbank.

Per the article, the new slips just contain the contact details and opening hours of the foodbank.

[edit: x-posted with you, Pattygonia!]

It's certainly on-brand for the DWP to do Thing A which is wrong and stupid; then "correct" it by doing Thing B which is wrong and stupid...

Or do something that means they can say the number of referrals is down.

I worked for the NHS in the Thatcher and Major years.

The NHS was banned from refurbishing wards, but they could knock them down and build new ones, so the government could say how many more wards were opened.

The DWP flyer can still be used by the food bank as evidence of referral, as long as the DWP only gives them out one at a time.

They could be used as just a voucher. They could give the number of flyers per person in the family, or have single person flyers.

Trussel trust doesn’t operate on it’s original principles anyway, so could just accept all comers.