Another worry is once they start doing this monitoring to people on benefits, eventually they’ll roll it out to everyone and snoop on everyones accounts
No-Wind6836 on
I like it when we make it law the government CANNOT do something, looking at peoples bank accounts without a specific court order is one of those things that should be illegal.
HauntedFurniture on
> It emerged in the summer that DWP software had wrongly flagged over 200,000 people for investigation for suspected fraud and error.
I’m sure it’ll be worth doing this to hundreds of thousands more to make that 3% saving
No_Plate_3164 on
I’m sure the guardian would be the first to advocate HMRC monitoring bank accounts to identity tax avoidance.
If you are doing nothing criminal – why would you care if AI scanned over your account and civil servant then verified any anomalous income.
JudasPreist1999 on
labour, just as authoritarian and nanying as the tories
mountain4455 on
Surely everyone will just make a cash withdrawal the day it goes in, zero way to track it then
99thLuftballon on
And a waste of money, since benefits fraud is a tiny problem.
This is yet another case of “tackle the problem of the right-wing media, not the fake problems they create”.
Confident-City6551 on
If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear !
weirdhoney216 on
I’ve never even claimed benefits but I would never support this.
ken-doh on
Worth it. Definitely monitor a condition of getting benefits.
yourlocallidl on
This is why I’m against the digitisation of money, now that pretty much everywhere takes card it rolls out the red carpet for the government to start snooping on your purchase history.
Electronic-Trip8775 on
HMRC has access already but benefits fraud isn’t a priority.
…people not paying the right tax is.
Lopsided_Rush3935 on
The UK media, government and public need to stop calling social welfare ‘Benefits’. It’s a horrible and shaming term.
It presents the insinuation that people receiving social/state welfare are somehow receiving a *benefit* that other people aren’t, when it’s actually designed/intended to put vulnerable people on an even playing field. The name basically invites the ‘scrounger-bashing’ mentality.
Ooh_aah_wozza on
I think this is a good idea. I’ve always quite fancied living in an authoritarian dystopia. Why stop at benefits, they could check bank accounts to see if anyone buying dog food is also buying bags to pick up their dog’s poo. They could put in automatic stops on your card if you tried to buy more than the weekly recommended limit for alcohol. They could automatically deduct money from people’s accounts when they had too much and keep it safe for them in a special Government account. So many possibilities, we just need a government with a bit of imagination and creativity.
Smevis on
This will catch less people than they think it will and will only encourage benefit fraudsters to take cash on their ‘other’ income so it never touches a bank account. Presumably most of them already do, except with this they have more reason to get better at hiding it.
Bored_Breader on
Shouldn’t we take all the energy we’re putting into stopping someone claiming a few hundred pounds more a month and put it into developing poor areas
Christ why does everyone immediately jump to fuck the poor
Any_Hyena_5257 on
We can rant on Reddit, or any social media platform, it doesn’t matter. Britons will just queue to take it in the ass from the establishment, making a small group of people rich and keeping them rich since 1066.
Downtown_Category163 on
Wage theft is a much much bigger target than benefit screw-ups if they want to actually fix a problem and not just beat on some poors to give UK legacy media a chubby
actuarynewsmod on
Starmer is more like some snooping East German leader every day
PositiveLibrary7032 on
How about the rich for funnelling cash off shore too?
BunLandlords on
Why dont they spend this energy going after tax loopholes and closing avenues that allow the wealthy to pay minimal tax instead of invading peoples privacy for a fraction of a fraction of the population
chaosandturmoil on
what the government actually want in my opinion is to make sure you’re not able to have any savings on the benefits they pay you.
if you’re able to save up to pay for your yearly MOT, tax, and increasing insurance, they think theyre paying you too much.
this is linked to the proposal that they want to pay people in “vouchers, one-off grants, a receipt-based scheme or choosing support aids from a catalogue” so they know exactly where the money is going.
oh and if you’re trying to save up to the £6 grand capital limit for your funeral which can cost upwards of £6 grand then you’re fucked because that also includes your current bill payments running costs account.
Ironfields on
The idea that any government has the god-given right to monitor citizens like this is disgusting. It’s an extreme overreach and should be opposed wherever it rears its head.
Powerful_Room_1217 on
Maybe it’s time to go back to the old times of cash is king
Andries89 on
Now if only we could this to tax dodgers and corporate accounts
ThatGuyMaulicious on
Don’t worry everyone it’ll all be for the “greater good” like we’ve never heard that before from just control freaks and villains.
SpeedWobbles87 on
If I had loads of drug money paid into my bank the tax man would notice, so why can’t they notice fraud?
Kind-County9767 on
See I was under the impression that this already happened. Banks are responsible for preventing fraud. So they have whole suits of reports to look for suspicious activity to pass onto HMRC because if they don’t they get in trouble with the regulators. Things like people constantly withdrawing to get under 6k for example. That was the case when I worked for a bank a couple years back at least.
derangedfazefan on
There’s no “would be” about this. They’re already asking for it by the middle of October. If you don’t show nearly half a year of your bank transactions you don’t get benefits.
sivaya_ on
To paraphrase Chomsky, the greatest threats to today’s governments are their own populations.
chin_waghing on
It’s definitely a lot cheaper and easier to do a “report someone with evidence of fraud and win £200” than another failed government tech project
In my eyes, this is a low hanging fruit of the classic “I’m happy to be mistreated so long as someone has it worse” – eg, take it out on people who need the money
ElvishMystical on
Oh I wouldn’t worry… any proposal to implement torture to benefit claimants would be rather popular. Plenty of small-minded, petty little Hitlers out there who’d snitch on their neighbours if there were a few brownie points in it.
Threatening-Silence- on
Don’t claim benefits and it won’t affect you. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
Shcoobydoobydoo on
How about checking on the offshore bank accounts first, for the rich tossers who are hoarding millions of tax free profits not being circulated back into the economy.
FogduckemonGo on
Can we monitor politicians’ accounts for bribes and embezzlement first?
Enflamed-Pancake on
UK governments really have a hard on for infringing on privacy, don’t they? Nanny me harder.
Sea_Cycle_909 on
Whats the point in people protesting the government is gonna do it anyway.
37 Comments
Another worry is once they start doing this monitoring to people on benefits, eventually they’ll roll it out to everyone and snoop on everyones accounts
I like it when we make it law the government CANNOT do something, looking at peoples bank accounts without a specific court order is one of those things that should be illegal.
> It emerged in the summer that DWP software had wrongly flagged over 200,000 people for investigation for suspected fraud and error.
I’m sure it’ll be worth doing this to hundreds of thousands more to make that 3% saving
I’m sure the guardian would be the first to advocate HMRC monitoring bank accounts to identity tax avoidance.
If you are doing nothing criminal – why would you care if AI scanned over your account and civil servant then verified any anomalous income.
labour, just as authoritarian and nanying as the tories
Surely everyone will just make a cash withdrawal the day it goes in, zero way to track it then
And a waste of money, since benefits fraud is a tiny problem.
This is yet another case of “tackle the problem of the right-wing media, not the fake problems they create”.
If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear !
I’ve never even claimed benefits but I would never support this.
Worth it. Definitely monitor a condition of getting benefits.
This is why I’m against the digitisation of money, now that pretty much everywhere takes card it rolls out the red carpet for the government to start snooping on your purchase history.
HMRC has access already but benefits fraud isn’t a priority.
…people not paying the right tax is.
The UK media, government and public need to stop calling social welfare ‘Benefits’. It’s a horrible and shaming term.
It presents the insinuation that people receiving social/state welfare are somehow receiving a *benefit* that other people aren’t, when it’s actually designed/intended to put vulnerable people on an even playing field. The name basically invites the ‘scrounger-bashing’ mentality.
I think this is a good idea. I’ve always quite fancied living in an authoritarian dystopia. Why stop at benefits, they could check bank accounts to see if anyone buying dog food is also buying bags to pick up their dog’s poo. They could put in automatic stops on your card if you tried to buy more than the weekly recommended limit for alcohol. They could automatically deduct money from people’s accounts when they had too much and keep it safe for them in a special Government account. So many possibilities, we just need a government with a bit of imagination and creativity.
This will catch less people than they think it will and will only encourage benefit fraudsters to take cash on their ‘other’ income so it never touches a bank account. Presumably most of them already do, except with this they have more reason to get better at hiding it.
Shouldn’t we take all the energy we’re putting into stopping someone claiming a few hundred pounds more a month and put it into developing poor areas
Christ why does everyone immediately jump to fuck the poor
We can rant on Reddit, or any social media platform, it doesn’t matter. Britons will just queue to take it in the ass from the establishment, making a small group of people rich and keeping them rich since 1066.
Wage theft is a much much bigger target than benefit screw-ups if they want to actually fix a problem and not just beat on some poors to give UK legacy media a chubby
Starmer is more like some snooping East German leader every day
How about the rich for funnelling cash off shore too?
Why dont they spend this energy going after tax loopholes and closing avenues that allow the wealthy to pay minimal tax instead of invading peoples privacy for a fraction of a fraction of the population
what the government actually want in my opinion is to make sure you’re not able to have any savings on the benefits they pay you.
if you’re able to save up to pay for your yearly MOT, tax, and increasing insurance, they think theyre paying you too much.
this is linked to the proposal that they want to pay people in “vouchers, one-off grants, a receipt-based scheme or choosing support aids from a catalogue” so they know exactly where the money is going.
oh and if you’re trying to save up to the £6 grand capital limit for your funeral which can cost upwards of £6 grand then you’re fucked because that also includes your current bill payments running costs account.
The idea that any government has the god-given right to monitor citizens like this is disgusting. It’s an extreme overreach and should be opposed wherever it rears its head.
Maybe it’s time to go back to the old times of cash is king
Now if only we could this to tax dodgers and corporate accounts
Don’t worry everyone it’ll all be for the “greater good” like we’ve never heard that before from just control freaks and villains.
If I had loads of drug money paid into my bank the tax man would notice, so why can’t they notice fraud?
See I was under the impression that this already happened. Banks are responsible for preventing fraud. So they have whole suits of reports to look for suspicious activity to pass onto HMRC because if they don’t they get in trouble with the regulators. Things like people constantly withdrawing to get under 6k for example. That was the case when I worked for a bank a couple years back at least.
There’s no “would be” about this. They’re already asking for it by the middle of October. If you don’t show nearly half a year of your bank transactions you don’t get benefits.
To paraphrase Chomsky, the greatest threats to today’s governments are their own populations.
It’s definitely a lot cheaper and easier to do a “report someone with evidence of fraud and win £200” than another failed government tech project
In my eyes, this is a low hanging fruit of the classic “I’m happy to be mistreated so long as someone has it worse” – eg, take it out on people who need the money
Oh I wouldn’t worry… any proposal to implement torture to benefit claimants would be rather popular. Plenty of small-minded, petty little Hitlers out there who’d snitch on their neighbours if there were a few brownie points in it.
Don’t claim benefits and it won’t affect you. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
How about checking on the offshore bank accounts first, for the rich tossers who are hoarding millions of tax free profits not being circulated back into the economy.
Can we monitor politicians’ accounts for bribes and embezzlement first?
UK governments really have a hard on for infringing on privacy, don’t they? Nanny me harder.
Whats the point in people protesting the government is gonna do it anyway.