DWP bank account snooping plans scrapped, Digi Mart USA News (United Kingdom): The UK Government has reportedly abandoned plans to check welfare claimants’ bank accounts for fraud, according to reports in the Telegraph newspaper, which is cited as the source for the story. The Press Association’s political correspondent David Lynch reported the development.
Chancellor John Healey has scrapped the plan, which would have allowed Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) officials to see the savings of people trying to claim universal credit, the Telegraph reported. Under universal credit rules, people with more than £16,000 in savings are ineligible to claim unemployment benefits.
Rachel Reeves had announced the plans when she was chancellor and claimed they would save £200 million a year in benefit fraud. The Government has replaced the counter-fraud proposals with a new scheme in which banks will conduct checks on welfare claimants’ accounts after they have received universal credit and then report back to ministers, the Telegraph said.
The newspaper suggested the change could lead to higher levels of fraud going undetected.
