{"id":479537,"date":"2026-03-17T01:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T01:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/479537\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T01:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T01:35:12","slug":"dwp-checking-state-pensioners-bank-accounts-for-two-things-full-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/479537\/","title":{"rendered":"DWP checking state pensioners’ bank accounts for two things – full list"},"content":{"rendered":"

DWP crackdown on retirees\"DWP<\/p>\n

DWP checking state pensioners’ bank accounts for two things – full list<\/p>\n

State pensioners face bank accounts being checked as the Departmenrt for Work and Pensions tries to analyse the “accuracy” of Winter Fuel Payment and Pension Credit awards. Retirees are at risk from invasive new powers from the DWP<\/a>, it has emerged.<\/p>\n

Richard Foord, a Liberal Democrats<\/a> MP for Honiton and Sidmouth, asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions “what recent estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of fraud” in relation to TWO things.<\/p>\n

Mr Foord was asking the question “in relation to” two points: Pension Credit and the Winter Fuel Allowance. In response, Labour Party<\/a> MP Andrew Western replied. Mr Western, Labour for Stretford and Urmston, spoke out.<\/p>\n

READ MORE New rules for all renters in UK from May 1 in big crackdown<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr Western said: “The Department publishes yearly estimates of fraud and error in the benefit system. The latest estimates for Pension Credit are available in section 9.<\/p>\n

“Estimates of Winter Fuel Payment fraud is not routinely published; more information can be found on the government website.<\/p>\n

“The Department is taking action to reduce incorrectness in all benefits. The Public Authorities (Fraud Error and Recovery) Act 2025 Eligibility Verification Measure requires banks and financial institutions to provide data that will enable the Department to check the accuracy of awards.<\/p>\n

“We are also introducing case reviews in Pension Credit to help ensure customers continue to receive the correct benefit amount.”<\/p>\n

Privacy activist group Big Brother<\/a> Watch has previously questioned the legality of the plan for DWP officials to run checks on the financial data of benefits claimants.<\/p>\n

Big Brother Watch said it has commissioned legal advice from barristers Dan Squires KC and Aidan Wills of Matrix Chamber, and that this was that it would amount to \u201can unprecedented regime of intrusive generalised financial surveillance across the population, not restrict6ed to serious crime at all\u201d.<\/p>\n

Baroness Kidron, former director of civil liberties group Liberty, described the powers as \u201ccruel, dangerous and disproportionate\u201d and that they are focused on poor people.<\/p>\n

\u201cCruel,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause they put the most vulnerable in society in a situation where family, landlords and employers will withdraw support to protect their own \u2018connected accounts\u2019 which will be open for scrutiny.<\/p>\n

\u201cDangerous because we have seen how digital systems, such as Horizon, can easily provide false signals.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisproportionate because the DWP has powers to get this information if they suspect wrongdoing. This is a phishing exercise at eyewatering scale, its presence in a Data Protection Bill is contradictory to the bill\u2019s stated purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DWP crackdown on retirees DWP checking state pensioners’ bank accounts for two things – full list State pensioners…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,2215,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-479537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-dwp","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}