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Ministers examine proposals to enable banks to access all applicants’ accounts for compensation because they try to break the fraud to repair a “gap hole” in the UK.
The officers in the work and pension department were asked to investigate the proposal as a possible insurance agent benefit Recipients have no more means than they claim, according to people who have been filed with this.
“We look at whether it will be possible to access the applicant’s bank accounts in the same way they get access to all your accounts when applying for a mortgage,” one official said.
The Draft of the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Law would require lenders to notify government If they have found evidence of the overpayment of the state or the rules for violation of eligibility, including if the applicants had more than £ 16,000 – the austerity limit for the universal loan – to the account on which they receive their benefits.
According to the legislation, which moves through Parliament, the government would have the authority to regain money or overpayments from individual accounts without a court order.
But ministers are worried that fraudsters will continue to be able to bypass the rules holding money in different accounts on their behalf, and banks have no duty to review, according to the people who are familiar with that issue.
“There is a huge hole in the system for a gap,” one of them said.
The person added that officials investigated whether the principles of open banking could be applied to the social welfare system. Model has been used by mortgage lenders since 2018 to provide banks only to read the approach to balance of accounts and transactions history.
However, they added, however, that the scope of the scope was at an early stage and it is unlikely that it will be part of the current fraud, mistakes and recovery.
About 8.6 billion pounds were lost due to overpayment of fraud and mistakes in the financial year until April 2024, according to government data.
About 3.7 million people receive health benefits, which is 1.2 million increases compared to February 2020, before the Pandemia of the Covid-19.
The UK consumes about £ 65 billion annually on incapacity and disability fees, more than on defense, according to the Committee on the Economic Affairs of the Lords House.
The UK Finance, an industrial body, has been replaced against new fraud measures, claiming that banks’ requests can be clashed with their regulatory obligations to protect the financially vulnerable consumers.
“The proposed access to recovery of money from bank accounts in the Public Authority Act should be carefully considered to ensure that it does not create the risk of vulnerable customers and is in line with the existing regulatory obligation. . . In addition to watching bank accounts, we believe that the Government could improve controls to prevent fraud and mistakes of entry into the fee system, “said Daniel Cichocki, director of economic crime policy at the UK Finance.
Karla Prudencio Ruiz, Director and Officer of Advocating International, said that the incentive to expand even more to expand the extent of the Government powers “deeply worrying”, warning that he risked “shadowing of fundamental rights to privacy and procedure”.
“In principle, this is a generalized monitoring mechanism,” Prudencio said. “[The government] He will be in a fishing expedition seeking suspects without a necessary reasons for doubt. “
Government spokesman said: “The Government brings the highest suppression of fraud fraud, sparing the taxpayer 1.5 billion pounds over the next five years, part of the wider plans that will save £ 8.6 billion by 2030.”
