Two Labour ministers implementing welfare reforms that force banks to monitor the accounts of benefit recipients raised ‘substantial concerns’ when the measure was proposed by the Conservatives in government.
Sir Stephen Timms and Baroness Sherlock opposed Tory plans to give officials the power to inspect the bank accounts of anyone claiming a social security benefit.
Yet both are sitting ministers in the Department for Work and Pensions, which this month announced plans to take money directly from benefit fraudsters’ accounts as part of a welfare crackdown.
In 2023, Sir Stephen said the Conservatives’ Data Protection and Digital Information Bill would represent ‘surveillance where there is absolutely no suspicion at all, which is a substantial expansion of the state’s powers to intrude’.
Sir Stephen Timms, who is backing the implementing of welfare reforms that force banks to monitor accounts of benefit recipients raised ‘substantial concerns’ when the measure was proposed by the Conservatives in government
Baroness Sherlock also opposed Tory plans to give officials the power to inspect the bank accounts of anyone claiming a social security benefit
He added: ‘I think that all of us would agree, whatever party we are in, that the powers of the state should be limited to those absolutely necessary.’
Sir Stephen said tonight: ‘My interventions in that debate pointed out how inappropriate it was to include the state pension, which has no saving limits.
‘Key privacy safeguards have also been added, so that the new Bill is a good one.’
Matthew Feeney, Advocacy Manager at the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said: ‘It is astonishing that Labour is currently rushing ahead with its welfare fraud bill when some of the ministers tasked with introducing it spoke out against similar intrusive powers when they were proposed by the previous Conservative government.
‘Sir Stephen Timms was right to brand bank spying as a ‘substantial expansion’ of state power – the risks of financial surveillance do not change when government switches hands, and Labour ministers should be asked what account for their apparent change of heart. Instead of pushing through increasing digital surveillance, the government should scrap its plans to bring in these invasive powers.’
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said: ‘We will not tolerate the unacceptable level of fraud in the welfare system. New measures in this Bill will ensure taxpayers have confidence that welfare spending goes to support those who really need it, not people who seek to exploit it – saving the taxpayer £1.5 billion over the next five years.
‘These measures include stronger safeguards, independent oversight provisions and limitations on scope for the Eligibility Verification Measure – expressly excluding state pension – stopping errors early and protecting claimants from large debts.’
Baroness Sherlock was contacted for comment.
