The Department for Work and Pensions, or DWP, has begun using bank checks to find incorrect benefit payments in Britain. Those checks can also capture details about relatives or other people who receive the money on a claimant’s behalf.
Daylight Post found that the limits on what banks share do not restrict the checks to claimants’ own accounts. Comparing the launch announcement with the detailed rules shows that identifying whose money is involved can happen after information reaches the department.
DWP, the government department responsible for these benefits, announced its first use of the powers on October 26. It is starting with a small number of financial institutions before a wider rollout. Its stated aim is to find undeclared savings and excessive time abroad sooner, reducing both fraud and mistakes that can leave people owing money.
Helping someone else can bring your account into the check
Some people cannot manage their own benefit claims because of a disability or mental incapacity. DWP can formally appoint someone, often a friend or relative, to handle the claim. This person is called an appointee. The benefit is paid to them to use in the claimant’s best interests.
The bank-check code explicitly includes personal accounts held by appointees when the payment and other criteria match. Linked accounts held by that same person can also be included. Business accounts are excluded.
This does not mean the helper’s savings belong to the claimant. The code requires DWP to check whether the account holder and the person claiming are the same. Information that is irrelevant to the claim must not be used by operational teams and must be destroyed when it no longer serves a purpose.
What the bank can send
The program covers Universal Credit, Pension Credit and New Style Employment and Support Allowance. These provide support for low incomes, pensioners on low incomes, or people whose health limits their ability to work. The public guidance applies to England, Scotland and Wales.
Banks check their own records against benefit rules specified by DWP. A match can lead them to send names, account details, balances and dates of overseas transactions. They cannot send full statements, details of spending or specific transaction locations through this program. DWP cannot log into someone’s online banking.
For Universal Credit, savings and investments normally have to total £16,000 or less. A partner’s money counts too. Some money is excluded, such as certain compensation payments. A bank balance therefore needs context before it can show whether a payment is wrong.
A flag is the start of a check
The department cannot decide entitlement from the bank’s information alone. Staff must consider other relevant information and can ask the claimant questions or request evidence. A claimant who disagrees with a benefit decision can ask DWP to look at it again, a process called mandatory reconsideration.
The bank checks are separate from the UK tax authority’s proposed changes to digital tax checks. One program checks entitlement to support; the other concerns tax information and is still a proposal. Their powers and safeguards should not be treated as interchangeable.
