DWP crackdown from the Labour Party government means it is attempting to clamp down on benefit fraud and error.DWP crackdown from the Labour Party government means it is attempting to clamp down on benefit fraud and error.

DWP crackdown from the Labour Party government means it is attempting to clamp down on benefit fraud and error.

The Department for Work and Pensions could strip driving licences from people on THREE benefits under a crackdown. A DWP crackdown from the Labour Party government means it is attempting to clamp down on benefit fraud and error.

The DWP is targeting three benefits to begin with: Universal Credit, which has the highest rate of fraud, Employment and Support Allowance, or ESA, and Pension Credit.

The powers were greenlit and rubber-stamped by the Labour Party government earlier this week. As part of the powers, the DWP can recover money owed by people directly from their accounts without a court order, and strip suspected fraudsters of their driving licences to pressure them to return stolen funds.

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Courts could suspend driving licences following an application by the DWP if they owe welfare debts of more than £1,000 and have ignored repeated requests to pay it back.

Speaking last year, Work and Pensions Minister Alison McGovern said it would provide an additional “tool in the box” to chase repayments.

McGovern told BBC Breakfast it would provide a “backstop” to chase repayment from those determined to “evade collection”.

The licence powers could help with those who still “don’t want to co-operate”, the MP went on to add to the Beeb in 2025.

In a letter to former DWP boss Liz Kendall, though, the directors of Big Brother Watch and Age UK described the plans as “mass financial surveillance powers” which they said would “represent a severe and disproportionate intrusion into the nation’s privacy”.

Conservative Party shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said the government’s bill was a “continuation” of work started by the previous government and Labour “must do more to tackle the spiralling welfare budget”.

The Tory MP’s views came after it emerged Labour had savaged the initial proposal launched by the Tories.

At the time, Labour attacked the Tory legislation as “poorly delineated”. But since entering government, Labour has pledged that only “very limited information” will be handed over by banks.