Brace for incoming army of low paid jobsworths ready to abuse disabled over their spending habits.

Of course this data won't be leaked, no.

This data will be all over the internet, or at least the local JobCentre watercooler before the first £100 is recovered. As the article states, the DWP already has the power to view this information if they suspect someone is doing something dodgy. Snooping on people should be difficult and done only when there is genuine suspicion, snooping for snooping's sake never ends well.

Precisely, there's no need to look around people's bank accounts except for fraud. All the DWP needs to do is determine if the last year's income is over £X by comparing with the last year's PAYE figures or self-assessment. If they did that then there would also have been no Winter Fuel Allowance cliff-edge problem either.

We seem to have systems which are really showing their age where one part of government can't query another and to fix that they've gone for full bank account access.

Don't worry, I am sure there are usual suspects ready for bidding to create such a system that will take a decade to partially implement for just a few billions.

Precisely, there's no need to look around people's bank accounts except for fraud. All the DWP needs to do is determine if the last year's income is over £X by comparing with the last year's PAYE figures or self-assessment.

That's kind of the point though. Someone who is committing benefit (or tax) fraud is unlikely to declare their full income. Plus I guess if they're on self-assessment, their income level is probably above the amount for any means-tested benefits. But then any half-way sophisticated fraudster might have multiple bank accounts to try and hide money.

Both DWP and HMRC have the powers to demand financial information already, but that would need them to pro-actively investigate. I'm guessing TPTB have been sold on some 'AI' fraud detection system that could ingest people's bank statements to look for undeclared income and automagically generate fraud reports. Plus there might be some benefits.

It's always puzzled me why, despite billions being spent on government IT, self-assessment forms are sent out blank. So then we have to fill in boxes with information HMRC should already know, like name, address, P11 & P60 data etc. So becomes a copypasta exercise taking data from one HMRC form to another, sending it back with dire warnings that if we make a mistake, there'll be big penalties. Why can't self-assessment forms be sent with that data already completed, for us mere minions to check and declare any additional income (or expenses) on pain of pain?

If goverment can't even do a simple thing like this, I'm rather dubious it'll use any new powers wisely, or accurately.

UK law says personal data must be "used in a way that is adequate, relevant and limited to only what is necessary" https://www.gov.uk/data-protection. There are already provisions to allow the reporting or investigation of suspected crimes and this is neccessary. I do not see how this complies with the spirit of the data protection act and imagine any way that the have managed to comply with the letter of the legislation is acrobatic. As noted in the article this seems to automate suspicion and presume guilt. I also don't imagine that the amount recovered would be a patch on what could be gained by improving big firms voluntary compliance in paying tax, closing loopholes and encouraging growth, all things the government in opposition and during the election campaign claimed to want to do .

Tell me why a credit reference agency needs to store every address I've ever lived at in the last 25+ years.

They like to carve out exceptions for big business.

You don't even want to know the retention times of things like school data... some of them go way beyond 25 years.

How's about chasing tax dodgers, pretty sure that would yield more money.

What if they stop donating money to the party?

1.6billion over 5 years breaks down to 320million a year

considering, oh just pick one at this stage, the state of government finances and reckless spending on myriad other "projects" and "plans" that cost many many millions just to think about and put on paper, not even implementation if they even get that far, I am sure the finger could be readily pointed back at the governemtn for their own "Benefit frauds" upon their own people.

For sure, actual benefit fraud should be tracked and tackeled as a mattoer of course too.

'protect vulnerable claimants from racking up debt'

How is this supposed to work? If peoples overdrafts are too high call them in for a chat to see how the government can help?

Somewhat unlikely.

And I thought most vulnerable claimants only racked up debt when they were sanctioned, i.e. benefits stopped, for breaching one of innumerable petty rules.

Since they are apparently still available for hire.

There is no presumption of innocence any more.

You are presumed guilty unless you prove the contrary.

I remember writing to my then MP in 2015 pointing out that his govt. was celebrating the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta by removing the presumption. In fact that in itself was a bit late.

restricting the data sharing to benefit recipient's accounts as I would have thought if you had a little cash earner on the side you wouldn't let your hard earned anywhere near a bank. If it weren't a cash earner another account, possibly offshore (especially an internet business), under an alias would fly under this radar.

I don't suppose Starmer and co. would be interested in a well tested Robodebt system from Australia's equivalent organisation. Surplus sale price. ;)

There is a reason that I've never claimed a benefit, and a reason that in the future for my retirement I want to live as independently of utilities, governments and benefits as possible.

I'm far from a conspiracy theorist, I have absolutely nothing to hide, and I mostly just want to be left alone by large organisations who want to cause me hassle.

But every interaction I have with government is largely negative and I can't imagine being RELIANT on them for something as simple as a pension payment.

I was self-employed for a decade. I gave it up because their processes were largely awful and punishing, and that was with me just declaring income and never bothering to claim expenses or tax deductions.

We have things like universal credit failures, and I've seen the processes behind honest people just trying to get disability living allowance, or jobseeker's allowance, etc. even with the full support of medical staff and other professionals.

Increasingly, I predict the number and scale of interactions I'll have to have with them come retirement is going to grow enormously from my current minimal stance and I'm not looking forward to it. I really don't want to be spending hours on the phone, or filling out myriad (often paper!) forms to do simple things, or having to fight for things I'm obviously entitled to at that point.

At least in employment, I can pretty much do what I like with my money (because "what I like" is always 100% legal) and don't have to justify anything to anyone.

But my interactions with councils are generally poor and I just do the bare minimum to get them to shut up and go away so that I don't have to interact with them. I bought a house with those kinds of things in mind. I have a driveway with a dropped kerb so I don't have to argue about parking with them, things like that. I've seriously considered just not bothering with waste collection and organising a private company to come and collect mine on a date and time convenient to me (where they can walk up my damn driveway and get them themselves, and no penalty if I "get it wrong")

I'm all for regulation, detecting crime, investigating fraud, etc. and quite understand the need for it. But we seem to do it in the worst possible way most of the time - expensive, inefficient, trawls up millions of innocent people, asks people to justify themselves rather than actually prove cases against them, etc. The Post Office scandal and other things show you what happens. That's been going on for decades now, and still the ones who were CLEARLY defrauded of money by the Post Office have no proper compensation for that.

I've decided to just stay out of their way come retirement. I'll live in my little house, drive my little car (as far as I can), pay my bills, and not rely on them for anything (even water utility regulation, electricity market regulation, etc.).

It's a sad state of affairs because it's against most of my political beliefs, but the administration side of government is almost universally a mess and punishes its users and I'm not sure I can be bothered with it any more.