12 January 2024 , 11:57
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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) could monitor your bank account if it suspects fraud - and the majority of benefits are paid into the largest 15 banks in the UK.
Full-scale checks are expected to start in 2030. Bank staff will mainly look for accounts where people have too much savings to qualify for benefits. For Universal Credit, this limit is £16,000. However, those moving from tax credits to Universal Credit can have more than this for the first year.
The DWP stated: "We know that the vast majority of DWP claimants bank with, and have their benefits paid into, the largest 15 banks in the UK. These banks and building societies receive over 97 per cent of all payments to DWP claimants."
They also said that the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill proposals would allow any other banks to implement these measures if needed.
15 banks where majority of benefits are paid into
The banks are listed alphabetically along with the number of staff.
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- Bank of Scotland (40,000)
- Barclays Bank (43,000)
- Halifax (4,000)
- HSBC (40,000)
- Lloyds Bank (62,587)
- Metro Bank (4,000)
- Monzo Bank Limited (2,432)
- National Westminster Bank (NATWEST) (63,500)
- Nationwide Building Society (17,680)
- Santander (22,200)
- Starling Bank (2,700)
- The Co-Operative Bank (2,677)
- The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) (12,000)
- TSB Bank (6,000+)
- Yorkshire Bank (7,415)
The DWP has found that a lot of mistakes with money claims come from people not telling them about their savings. They've told banks to keep accounts open even if someone has more than £16,000.
They said: "In discussion with UK Finance, banks, building societies and other financial intuitions, we have been clear that any data received under this measure should not be seen as indicative of any financial crime. Many claimants will have a legitimate, authorised reason to hold savings in excess of capital benefit rules (disregards for injury compensation, for example) and in many cases, overpayments could have been caused by genuine claimant error. Given this, we have been clear that there should be no action to de-bank claimants."
The DWP also said: "We are confident that the power is proportionate and would operate in a way that it only brings in data on DWP claimants, and specifically those claimants where there is a reasonable suspicion that something is wrong within their claim. The power will not bring in non-claimant data and will not bring in claimant data where there is no signal of a breach in the entitlement rules (for example, those with low or no savings)."
"By ensuring this measure is proportionate and only focuses on data of claimants where the data indicates a suspicion of fraud or error we are complying with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including compliance with the href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/whatsapp">WhatsApp and try BirminghamLive Premium at very affordable prices, aimed at bringing our dedicated community the latest updates round the clock.
* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story. You can report any errors to [email protected]