News

Let it be clear to these clowns who think they can masquerade around the place, what safeguards are in place for volunerable claimant's.  I can see serious problems within these Orwellian nightmare scenarios where someone who has a grudge tell lies on a claimant out of spite.  What's your response DWP.  Well let me tell you, there will be the overzealous investigator who is operating on bonus scheme to falsely convict a claimant.  If that happens to myself I assure you YOU WILL HAVE HELL TO PAY 

And what protection do claimants have against those intrusive and punitive powers and to whom are those people accountable to.

the dwp commits fraud on customers claims themselves so they should be put under investigation 

Is it true the dwp can now have access to your social media messages as a way of proving you have earned money??

Surely this is a breach of GDPR. There is a group of lawyers that are already investigating ICO for biased incident where council's and their contractors who fine people with parking tickets are in breach after getting the names and addresses of the driver concerned  from the DVLA . This means that the Council is in breach for asking , the DVLA are in Breach for accepting the request and in breach again for sending the requested private information . It also means that the council's or parking groups are in breach then for accepting the information from the DVLA . This is an ongoing investigation by a private bunch of lawyers. Let's hope they win as there is clearly a law for one and not the other. 

So the DWP have run a test with a bank that involved feeding banking data.  And still people think the New World Order digital intrusion ageda is good and won't affect them.  Tge thin end of a very totalitarian wedge, perhaps.

What happened to innocent until proved guilty.  Can't prosecute not enough evidence but will impose the sentence anyway 

So the proceeds of crime act by the back door then

I’m interested in the “feed of banking data” in instances where a person’s benefits are paid into a joint account. Surely the right to a private life (Article 8) of the other account holder would be violated if data concerning a joint account is made available to the DWP when there is no suspicion of fraud. Obviously with means tested UC it’s likely that a claimant’s partner’s financial info is already known to the DWP, but non means tested benefits aren’t excluded from this proposal.

I agree with so many of the comments below. As so many of us know from experience the DWP as a whole is very far from being the fair, efficient, humane organisation, fully funded and well trained,  that it needs to be just to handle the powers and duties it already has (with a few individuals excepted). Being given the legal rights to use even more coercive and frightening methods of investigation and punishment (without the need for proof), alongside their woeful record in providing swift support for often desperate people, is bound to result in many further miscarriages of justice. (Let's not forget what happened to all those sub postmistresses and masters when the Post Office mis-used their powers.) Surely there needs to be a strong backlash against this proposal from MPs and organisations as well as individuals. Rooting out the fraudsters needs to be done but it is likely to be ordinary, needy people who suffer and not the organised, sophisticated business people and crime gangs, as comments below suggest.  

Yet again the disabled community are labelled guilty before innocent. It's a joke they can afford the thousands of new front line staff but yer the £20 a week uplift was scrapped. Also the known fraud during lock down 3 to 4 billion is just wiped off and forgotten about. Absolutely disgusting. Let's see how long it takes for the DWP to get it wrong and some poor innocent person takes their life in fear of prison. The government don't have a clue.......totally disillusioned....and totally fed up. All eyes on us.....AGAIN....The easy soft target.

Hi everyone I've got my Pip's rewards renewal as anyone got any suggestions please?

I'm all in favour of prosecuting those who perpetrate benefit fraud, but the actual methods of doing it are probably identity theft. That coupled with the DWP track record of making mistakes that cost people their lives, make this piece of news extremely worrying. There is precious little recourse to hold them to account at the moment.

How can they fine people when there is insufficient evidence to take them to court? Whatever happened to our access to justice and the idea that someone is innocent until proven guilty? This smacks of disability discrimination at its worst to me. 

I can't help wondering if the extra money spend on counter fraud measures, which is only a very small percentage of overall claims, would be better spent on catching up on the backlogs in renewals that are causing us legitimate (vast majority) claimants such additional stresses. Maybe they should get their house in order before taking on more strong arm tactics to make our lives even harder.

Imagine how many people could be supported into work, or just helped to get by if they are unable to work, (that's if the English government were at all interested in helping people or in decent job creation, which they are not) with the £millions being spent on hounding people who are going to be labelled fraudsters, purely for needing financial support, just to access the very basic needs to survive, (access to basic needs, food, shelter, heating, are a human right, though the EngGov are about to scrap the HRA as well, scarily).

To award DWP staff powers of arrest, with no recourse to the actual laws of the land, (depending on which country you live in, I live in Scotland where Scots Law is independent and different in many ways to English law. For eg, you can't be imprisoned for debt) is absolutely abhorrent in a democracy. I would think this could be challenged, it needs to be scrutinised if this passes in the English parliament, because it smacks of a vigilante or witch hunt style of action against what is most likely to be perfectly innocent people who are otherwise unable to access basic funds to live.

Universal Credit, is it not almost impossible to get that measly financial help without ridicule, humiliation and the denial of a persons basic rights being honoured, and to be to be treated in a humane manner.

I am fearful that this will result in innocent people being castigated with no recourse to any laws which are meant to deliver a just and fair system to all citizens no matter their financial status.

How this new assault on peoples' rights to be treated with dignity, respect and fairness, is to be imposed is open to question. What criteria will be used, and by what measure will those imposing this (I would think unlawful) draconian treatment on the poorest and most desperate people in our society, be held to account?

People need to stand up for themselves and if they can't, get together and as with sites like this, support, question and ensure that people do not end up victims of a nasty, backward, witch hunt type of trial in a kangaroo court (?). I am sure organisations like CAB will be very busy if this atrocious inhumane and unlawful bill/act of the English parliament is passed. ( I call it the English parliament because Scotland does not get to choose the government in power at WM at any one time).

Lastly, as has been pointed out, perhaps the EngGov should look into their own backyard for utterly so much disgraceful criminal and fraudulent (but successful) claims made to the public purse, as well as tax evasion which as we all know is happening on a vast scale in the UK.

Everyone pays tax, even if not 'working', via VAT. Everyone pays into the public purse and should be able to access support when life takes a downturn for whatever reason that may be. Not many people want to be dependent and unable to contribute to society for the good, in some way or another, well, I can think of a few but they are not poor!

This is awful news they already push people into poverty & beyond & now they will have the right to arrest people too. How do we know it will only be fraudulent cases as they have already shown they use underhand practices to push people out of their benefits this will be a license to finish us off - it’s disgusting!!!

Need advice
my wife is on low income as a career
we live totaly on her wage
my self just been finished from employment due to lower back problems and been accepted for pip
iv heard rumours if my wife is earning im awarded reduced pip  any advice please   

No sign of increased tax inspectors yet? The Tory government has slashed the number of fraud investigators in HMRC, culminating in the massive frauds being perpetrated during lockdown. They have written off vast sums gifted to their friends, as even the Daily Mail reported, albeit rather quietly (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10410325/Treasury-writes-4-3bn-taken-fraudsters-furlough-business-support-lockdown.html) But we have yet to see widespread prosecutions for this. With a few exceptions, the most the government has been able to bring themselves to do is use different bodies they control to ban directors from being directors. Depressingly typical is this from last year - "Director banned for £150k Bounce Back Loan fraud"
"A Rotherham-based director has been banned after setting up three companies with the sole purpose of fraudulently obtaining £150,000 worth of Bounce Back Loans" - (https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/business/finance-strategy/director-banned-for-ps150k-bounce-back-loan-fraud)

Does arrest go both way,the DWP owe me over £4k so I can go to my local JC and arrest the
manager ? what would the police or courts think
about that.I doubt the queen would give royal
consent to a hair brained scheme like this.

Disgusting - considering the already hostile environment the DWP and Tories have created now they'll be able to threaten claimants with prison to withdraw benefit claims. Considering how frequently they illegally doctor reports and assessments this is one power they should never have as it is wide open to abuse and antagonise legitimate claimants with threats of prison or a huge fine when they have done nothing wrong. What's stopping them making threats off the record to stop claimants making a claim in the first place - it will happen as soon as this is brought in. Considering they already drive people to suicide and destitution I can imagine they'll be rubbing their hands in glee with this new tool in their arsenal to force claimants to commit suicide or stop a claim.

If you're going to give extra powers for prevention of fraud then you need to demonstrate that there is sufficient fraud to justify the extra expenditure. Frankly I'd like to see the numbers broken down better as the powers are as much aimed at UC where we quite rightly point out that only DLA/PIP has such a low fraud rate.

Before the powers are granted, there needs to be a rigid framework of oversight on the DWP to ensure the extra power is properly used. Current powers are used with zero oversight or liability so further powers should be withheld.

Certainly the police have been significantly improved over recent years given enhanced transparency and oversight - still a ways to go yet.

Any organisation which can stop your benefits based on non-return of a form, which had been sent in five weeks prior (but acknowledged mail opening over six weeks delayed) should surely not be trusted with powers of search and seizure if they can't even open the mail!