Back on the table: Government powers to spy on bank accounts

When the General Election was called, several bills the Conservative government had been planning were dropped, with not enough time for them to pass through parliament. One of the more toxic proposals that met this fate was a bill to increase powers for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), including to force banks to share personal information of social security recipients. The plans were met with significant opposition, with over 270,000 petition signatures and concerns raised by several parliamentarians. Campaigners celebrated as the Bill was shelved, but announcements from Labour Conference last week that the government is set to introduce a new Fraud, Error and Debt Bill have reignited fears that people’s privacy is once again at risk.

Measures to tackle supposed “welfare fraud”, under the guise of ‘bringing the welfare bill down’ and to fix the so-called “black hole”, are a distraction, and scapegoat people supported by social security payments for the government’s fiscal woes. Government campaigns to increase scrutiny of income support recipients like this have been shown to unfairly target disabled people, migrants and refugees, and other marginalised groups, and greatly increase dangerous stigmatisation. On top of this, the DWP has a history of its algorithm wrongfully flagging over 200,000 people’s rightful claims for income and housing support as ‘high risk’, costing £4.4 million for no savings. It’s clear that any economic justification for this policy is riddled with holes, and for the government to fixate on the comparatively small sum of money that social security fraud costs - when they could get up to £14 billion from implementing a windfall tax on banks - shows the outsized power of big finance in our democracy.

That’s why we’ve co-signed an open letter to Liz Kendall, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, to ask the new government to stop any plans to increase surveillance powers for bank accounts.

In particular, they should ensure that the most controversial clauses of the previous Bill are not brought forward to this parliament. The open letter explains how these plans perpetuate a ‘guilty until proven innocent’ mentality, and will mean vulnerable groups face heightened scrutiny and fear. We want a social security system based on compassion and justice, that works for all of us, not one that presumes the worst in people and creates humiliating hoops for people to jump through, when they’re already struggling to get by.

We will continue resisting any measures that make spying on our bank accounts easier, and encourage the government to shift its focus to #TaxTheBanks and the super-wealthy, not scapegoat vulnerable people.

Organise Network have created a tool to email DWP ministers to share your opposition to these new powers here.