DWP Proposing To Scrutinize Bank Accounts?

ginnycomelately

On radio 4 today a Lincolnshire MP said that there are 7 million people claiming disability benefit , Of them all 5 million could work maybe desk jobs , Now that really is food for thought , We all know people who could work but are getting benefits and all that goes with them, many are much better off than Gransnetters

Why do you assume "claiming disability benefit" mean none of them are working? Disability Benefits are not means tested and many work while receiving them. But that's probably not what you want to hear, is it

As regards assessment for Disability Benefit I am amazed that an experienced and fully qualified GP's opinion can be disregarded by a JobCentre lackey who has been on a cut-price crash course (probably run by G4S) and maybe hasn't even got a First Aid certificate but is alllowed to dictate who is ill and who isn't!

Margs

As regards assessment for Disability Benefit I am amazed that an experienced and fully qualified GP's opinion can be disregarded by a JobCentre lackey who has been on a cut-price crash course (probably run by G4S) and maybe hasn't even got a First Aid certificate but is alllowed to dictate who is ill and who isn't!

The whole system amazes me. Why do we still get £10 at Christmas. It could be 'included' in the basic pension.

One of the things that gets me is sheer nastyness. The could actually have presented it as something that would help stop people who have difficulties loosing there benefit.

Obviously, should the Labour Party be privileged to serve, it could be used to pick up wealth income, especially when they decide wealth income is just income and tax it the same as earned income.

Obviously there will be about the same percentage trying to con the "tax-payer" (life's like that) but the amounts recovered will be hugely bigger.

DaisyAnneReturns

But are they 5 million desks jobs that those disabled people can do in the place where they live, ginnycomelately?

Not only that, but some people receiving disability benefits do work and use the money they receive to enable them to do so. I had a colleague with MS, who received disability benefits and used the money to pay for an adapted car, a wheelchair, a special chair for his desk and an assistant to help him move round the building.

However, as Katie59 pointed out, it's much harder for people with cognitive impairments or those who just don't have the ability to do desk jobs (if they exist).

What is ‘wealth income’ DAR?

You are not being "silly" Nanatoone. Dont listen to those who say you are. Why would anyone not see this as another step on a very slippery slop

Allsorts

I do hope those on UC, I had never heard if it until recently, are not worried by this post.

Whether or not they are worried by this post, they will be worried by the government's action.

I see this as a gross invasion of privacy, and also as a means of further humiliating those on benefits. There are many things that could be done to make things fairer - eg tightening up on loopholes that allow couples to claim two lots of tax allowance when only one is paying tax, and generally prosecuting more tax evasion and fraud.

I suppose the devil is in the detail, too. If the checks are 'just' to see if there are other income sources going into accounts it is one thing, but are claimants going to be asked why they bought from Waitrose instead of Aldi, or whether they could cut back on TV subscriptions? If that is the case my annoyance at this will turn immediately to disgust.

My grandparents were born in 1908, and lived through the Depression. I remember my grandfather saying that the means test in those days involved someone coming to the house and looking round at what could be sold. If you had anything at all of value it had to be sold before you could claim assistance (this was before the Welfare State). If you were on the margins of poverty there was no point in trying to 'better yourself' as anything you had could be taken from you when times were hard. He had tears in his eyes when he told me about his piano, which he had to sell to keep the wolf from the door. Others lost winter coats, books, anything that wasn't immediately necessary for basic survival.

Naturally, this caused bad feeling between neighbours, who saw people hiding treasured possessions from the public assistance people, and resented it when they lost their own things. 'Snitching' was rife then, too. Divide and rule has always been used to keep people at the bottom of the pile.

Do we really want to go back to those dehumanising practices? Yes, there will be some who play the system. Some will be proud of it, and others just desperate. But let's not allow the system of giving help to the poor to disintegrate altogether, and for heaven's sake let's not make people have to justify every penny they spend. As King Lear says 'Allow not Nature more than Nature needs, man's life's as cheap as beasts'.'

Theexwife - DLA is paid to people to help them live with their disability. You ARE ALLOWD to work full time/part time/ volunteer. So your people are allowed to do just what they are doing!!

I used to like Gransnet but now someone mentions disability and lo and behold...Unless you are a dribbling, wheelchair bound disabled person you are cheating the system

Differently abled disabled people exist...and I'm out - this group isn't worth belonging too if you are disabled because almost every person here talks about the disabled as if they are all dishonest cheats...Not people struggling to live in an able world - with know it alls who know nothing destroying us!

treetops well said

I suspect that anyone whose accounts are accessed won’t know anything about it unless evidence of fraud is found. You would hardly tip off a suspect by telling them what investigations you’re going to undertake would you?

Margs

As regards assessment for Disability Benefit I am amazed that an experienced and fully qualified GP's opinion can be disregarded by a JobCentre lackey who has been on a cut-price crash course (probably run by G4S) and maybe hasn't even got a First Aid certificate but is alllowed to dictate who is ill and who isn't!

Rubbish, a member of my family works for DWP, they are hard working people and not lackeys, who have to take crap from people like you who know nothing. Don't blame the staff blame the system.

Treetops05

Theexwife - DLA is paid to people to help them live with their disability. You ARE ALLOWD to work full time/part time/ volunteer. So your people are allowed to do just what they are doing!!

I used to like Gransnet but now someone mentions disability and lo and behold...Unless you are a dribbling, wheelchair bound disabled person you are cheating the system

Differently abled disabled people exist...and I'm out - this group isn't worth belonging too if you are disabled because almost every person here talks about the disabled as if they are all dishonest cheats...Not people struggling to live in an able world - with know it alls who know nothing destroying us!

Totally accept, but am so sorry, this is your experience. It seems so common these days for many people to voice opinions with little, distorted or no knowledge claiming their 'right' to that opinion. It does seem rather more concentrated on here than in actual reality.
Hang in there, we should all be equal members of society and given equal respect and opportunities.

It's hardly just Treetops05 "experience" OldFrill. It's how disability benefits work.

In the debate on the Government's ironically called Data Protection Bill two parts of the speech by Sir Stephen Timms (Labour) seem particularly relevant.

As we have been reminded, new clause 34 will give the Government the right to inspect the bank account of anyone who claims a state pension, which is all of us. It will give the Government the right to look into the bank account of every single one of us at some point during our lives, without suspecting that we have ever done anything wrong, and without telling us that they are doing it.

And

The amendment gives the Government extremely broad powers, with no checks in place, and it has been done in a way that minimises parliamentary scrutiny of what is proposed. I find it very hard to see how that can possibly be defended. No doubt the Minister will tell us that at some point there will be some document setting out checks and balances and so on, but that needs to be part of this scrutiny. It should not be that the Government take it all away to come back in a few months' time to tell us how they will constrain the use of this power.

Currently, the DWP must individually request details of a benefit claimant’s bank account, if they suspect they are committing benefit fraud.

Under this new system, banks would be required to run monthly or even weekly data checks in a bid to spot information which could suggest “risk” of fraud, The Telegraph reports.

(GB News)

DaisyAnneReturns

Currently, the DWP must individually request details of a benefit claimant’s bank account, if they suspect they are committing benefit fraud.

Under this new system, banks would be required to run monthly or even weekly data checks in a bid to spot information which could suggest “risk” of fraud, The Telegraph reports.

(GB News)

If you fill in a Tax Return that would be checked by the HMRC computer and anything unusual flagged for further checking. Most benefit claimants would not need to fill in a return.

DaisyAnneReturns

It's hardly just Treetops05 "experience" OldFrill. It's how disability benefits work.

Don't understand your comment. I was referring to treetop's comment:

"I used to like Gransnet but now someone mentions disability and lo and behold...Unless you are a dribbling, wheelchair bound disabled person you are cheating the system

Differently abled disabled people exist...and I'm out - this group isn't worth belonging too if you are disabled because almost every person here talks about the disabled as if they are all dishonest cheats...Not people struggling to live in an able world - with know it alls who know nothing destroying us!"

Apparently the legislation will apply to all benefit recipients, pension, disability benefits etc even if there's no evidence of fraud. These are wide sweeping powers.

What is the point of snooping on pensioners? Pension credit is different from state pension, which has no strings attached, and no restrictions on how it is spent. The powers must only be to access the accounts of people on Pension Credit, to see if they have more savings than they have declared.

Means testing is so insidious.

The bill as currently drafted and approved does not apply to all benefits. Have you read it? I have. The relevant provisions apply only to means-tested benefits and the DWP can only require bank account details to be provided for the purpose of identifying cases which merit further investigation to establish whether means-tested benefits have been or are being paid according to the relevant statutory provisions (ie whether the recipient is entitled). Therefore the DWP will have power to monitor the accounts of people in receipt of pension credit but not the accounts of those receiving only the state pension.

Katie that is not comparable. My worry would be that you cannot see that.

OldFrill

DaisyAnneReturns

It's hardly just Treetops05 "experience" OldFrill. It's how disability benefits work.

Don't understand your comment. I was referring to treetop's comment:

"I used to like Gransnet but now someone mentions disability and lo and behold...Unless you are a dribbling, wheelchair bound disabled person you are cheating the system

Differently abled disabled people exist...and I'm out - this group isn't worth belonging too if you are disabled because almost every person here talks about the disabled as if they are all dishonest cheats...Not people struggling to live in an able world - with know it alls who know nothing destroying us!"

I would say stay and understand how an entitled proportion of the voting public actually think about their fellow human beings OldFrill although as things get more toxic I understand your wish to be out of it.

It's Treetops05 who wants to leave and l totally understand why.

I understand why too OldFrill.

However, burying your head in the sand while your backside is stuck in the air was never a good answer to life's problems It is not an answer to the gross sense of entitlement some feel about their position in life and therefore the disentitlemant they offer others.

After every extremist government is pulled down there are people claiming they "didn't know". This is never the case. The fact is they chose not to know how bad the extremists became as they took more and more power. We can all understand people ignoring what is going on around them if that's what they need to do to protect their families. But we haven't reached that point - yet.