DWP explains which bank accounts it'll 'prioritise' for fraud checks

May be granted new powers to inspect the bank accounts of benefit claimants, including state pensioners, amid a crackdown on fraud.

A rule change could see the Department for Work and Pensions granted power to check bank accounts of state pensioners. The DWP may be granted new powers to inspect the bank accounts of benefit claimants, including state pensioners, amid a crackdown on fraud.

DWP director general for labour market policy and implementation Katherine Green, explained how the powers are about “enacting the Government’s fraud plan, published in May 2022, to tackle the nearly £9 billion fraud issue”. She continued: “I think as the Secretary of State has said, it’s simply that the power is constructed in a way that would allow that, should that be necessary, should there be future evidence.

“We would not expect that at all, as we know and as the published statistics and the annual report and accounts say, most of the fraud we’re experiencing is within the UC ( Universal Credit ) system. So this is absolutely not a particular intention right now at all to access or to delve into the accounts of pensions specifically.

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“We know where the fraud is, we know what we want to prioritise, and it’s within Universal Credit and that’s absolutely what we would intend to prioritise.” Ms Farrington said suspicions might arise if there were “lots and lots of transactions being carried out in a different country”.

She said: “At the moment, we do not see large evidence of fraud and error in relation to state pension. Where we do see some fraud and error in relation to state pension is about people living abroad, and where the state pension would be frozen. And if you were resident in this country, your state pension would be uprated. So it’s a very small number of cases at the moment.”

She said the powers would “give the Government the freedom and the ability to tackle fraud, where it does arise”. Ms Green said there would be no direct access to people’s bank accounts through the powers, but that the power would allow the department to “ask for bulk data from financial organisations such as banks, where we have an indication where there is fraud and error”.