Plans to monitor the bank accounts of benefits claimants to catch welfare cheats and uncover payment errors have been condemned as unlawful, prompting calls on the government to scrap the initiative.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) wants new powers to require banks to trawl accounts of state benefit recipients, including those who receive pension and working tax credits, to try to reduce the £8 billion lost annually to fraud and error.
However, lawyers have warned it would reveal information about people’s movements, opinions, and medical information that could breach privacy rights and freedom of expression.
Legal advice, commissioned by the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, claims the proposed legislation would be highly likely to breach privacy law because it involves bank accounts
