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DWP compliance activity
Hi all,
Apologies if I am putting this post in the wrong place - all relevant cases are ESA but the query is to do with the more general issue of DWP compliance
Are the DWP able to look at your financial information without notifying you they are looking into your claim in the first instance? Do they have to have reasonable grounds in order to do so?
I have had 3 cases of ESA claimants (receiving income related ESA or contributory ESA) over the past year who have been subject to apparently spurious compliance activity that hasn’t gone anywhere. It has raised a few concerns for me re. data protection and I need to understand the powers that DWP have.
1. Claimant (London) in receipt of CESA with the support group (severe stroke). His wife is his carer and appointee. They have a disabled son receiving DLA. She is an appointee for the son.
She was asked to attend a compliance interview by letter. No reason given. Couldn’t get through to anyone at DWP compliance beforehand to find out what it was about despite consistently trying. Went to the interview and was given conflicting reasons for why she was being asked to attend. After several formal complaints, the DWP have said:
‘We became aware that Mr X possibly had a capital that exceeded allowed limits. Mrs X, as his appointee, was seen by a compliance officer on X about this.’
How did the DWP become aware? The couple had a joint account and that is where the sons DLA were going into. Are the DWP able to look at this account before initiating compliance? In addition - the claimant was receiving contributory ESA so why was capital an issue?
2. Claimant (Leeds) in receipt of income related ESA. She was summoned to a compliance interview which she could not attend due to major physical and mental health issues. Again, no reason given in the letter. MP got involved and DWP called the client. Caused her massive stress. They asked her about an ISA account she had emptied and closed three years before making the claim to ESA. It had a few thousand pounds in it.
3. Claimant (South of England) in receipt of contribution based ESA. Has received a letter from DWP asking for a compliance phone call next week. Her grandparents give her £200 most months as a gift. These voluntary payments should not affect her CESA. That is the only thing she can think it might be about, but then they would have had to have access to her bank statements to see that.
Has anyone else come across this? Are the DWP allowed to do this? Is there something going on with ESA/compliance particularly?
EKS
The DWP have powers under the Social Security Administration Act 1992 to require various information from banks, albeit this is tightly controlled and can only be used in the context of existing fraud investigations.
This won’t be what is going on in the cases you are talking about. They all sound like cases which have come about through the “General Matching Service”. Essentially, this is a DWP computer system which cross references government data and raises fraud referrals where the computer doesn’t think they add up.
E.g. A has a savings account and earns £200 interest in a year, this is communicated by the bank to HMRC for tax purposes as the interest is taxable. A also has a claim for irESA with declared capital of £4,000. GMS joins the dots and reckons that he can’t have made £200 interest on just £4k so must have under-declared capital. It automatically refers the case to FES to look at and take whatever action might be appropriate.
(The actual workings may be more or less sophisticated than this).
Thanks for the speedy reply Eliot - really helpful.
I didn’t know about the GMS. Do you know what powers the DWP have in order to do this? Is there anyone monitoring its operation?
It is not immediately obvious in each case where the data ‘match’ may have been made, although a lot of my clients are registered for self-assessment (self-employed).
Do you know of any information available to show the sources of government data?
Perhaps I should do a FOI request?
I have spoken to the claimant in case study 3. She says she is still registered for self-employment although she is ill. All she ever declares on the self-assessment currently is the CESA amount. Other than that, she has an Ebay account that she sells stuff on sometimes. Can she ask the DWP to confirm where they have sourced the info?
Case study 1 and 2 sources of government data remain a mystery also.
I didn’t know about the GMS. Do you know what powers the DWP have in order to do this? Is there anyone monitoring its operation?
It’s based on data which the government has legitimately obtained so I don’t see that they need any other particular powers to run it, provided it is GDPR compliant (which isn’t something I am remotely qualified to comment on). They aren’t asking banks to provide new information solely to contribute to the GMS database - which would require powers.
Do you know of any information available to show the sources of government data?
This 2014 document released under FOI lists the then-current sources and provides further info and guidance
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/general_matching_service
I’ve seen a few cases where GMS has thrown up spurious reports.I get the impression that FES are compelled to follow them all up. Our local compliance officers are pretty skeptical of them and where they’re obviously bobbins I don’t struggle to persuade them to abandon investigations.
That’s easier for me where I’m dealing with one local team mind; most of our compliance officers know me…
That aside; when they introduced GMS in 2007 everyone who had not declared bank accounts where forced out of the proverbial woodwork and we spent about 18 months arguing about badly calculated overpayments for people who had obiously intended to defraud the system. It was quite disheartening!