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DWP mistakenly publishes personal details of more than 6,000 claimants
Regulators have been alerted after the Department for Work and Pensions mistakenly published personal details of more than 6,000 claimants of the Personal Independence Payment benefit.
Two spreadsheets – containing the National Insurance numbers of about 6,400 people that claim the benefit – were first published in 2018, and the data remained publicly available online for more than two years. This was recently spotted by privacy advocacy group Big Brother Watch, and then reported on last week by the Mirror – which alerted the DWP.
The spreadsheets have now been taken down, and the department said that it has informed the Information Commissioner’s Office of the incident.