Government have lost millions child benefit bank details

saveaholic68 · 20 November 2007 at 2:34PM

Just seen this on the news.....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7103566.stm

Apparently the government have lost discs with the bank details of 15million child benefit claimants on them...unbelievable

Little_Mama · 20 November 2007 at 2:40PM

Oh but let's not worry, they don't think they've fallen into the wrong hands.......how the bl**dy hell do they know that if they don't know where the blasted things are.

Mr Darling must be dreading getting up in the morning.

tiff · 20 November 2007 at 2:48PM

Does this mean payments havent been made?

saveaholic68 · 20 November 2007 at 2:54PM

tiff wrote: »

Does this mean payments havent been made?

No I don't think so, I think payments will still be fine. I think it means that millions of peoples names, addresses and bank account details are missing somewhere and could be in the hands of Lord knows who.

Fran · 20 November 2007 at 4:53PM

BBC website says they were sent by unrecorded delivery. :eek: :mad:

Jo_F · 20 November 2007 at 5:24PM

And this is the same government that wants us to trust them with the rest of our details and our biometrics?

This is absolutly outstanding, is there not a case for suing the HMRC or the Government for a serious DPA breach? I mean we are talking 25m people launching a case against those responsible.

Larumbelle · 20 November 2007 at 5:44PM

Yes, it's true and they have no idea where the disk is. Bl**dy government AND bl**dy Royal Mail in one go! It's probably slipped down under a conveyor belt somewhere... They have known about it for 2 weeks but it was only announced this afternoon.

I work for a different Gov. department and we are going to take CB calls as they are expecting to be so swamped with calls. We are being given an information script to help us deal with the calls so I will post more info for you when I get it. :mad: It's bad enough having to deal with my own department's c*ck ups, without getting shouted at over other departments'.

I agree, Jo, if ever there was proof that the government can't be trusted to implement ID cards, it's this.

Jo_F · 20 November 2007 at 5:52PM

Apparenlty it wasn't the Royal Mail this time, they were sent via courier, but there was not record of them going (unless I got mixed up with what Darling was saying)

I have also heard elsewhere that the NAO was supposed to go to HMRC and that the information was NEVER supposed to leave the building.

Total numpties.

Can I go back to having my CB paid by book at the post office?

Larumbelle · 20 November 2007 at 6:11PM

Oops, yes, you are right. Royal Mail are blameless.

Not often you get to say that, is it?

The chances of any actual fraud occurring are probably quite small, as the disk was password protected, and the passwords are normally strings and strings of letters and numbers long and as random as is possible (not based on algorythms or anything like that).

Also the delay in notifying the public was in order to alert the banks and let the banks get their measures in place. Advice is, keep your phone switched on, because any transactions that are even vaguely suspect WILL be questioned.

From what I can gather, half of the country has data on that disk, and half the country is working to minimize the risk and rassure people.

Still no sign of that script. Also the girl who sits next to me (who has been with the department for years) said don't surprised if this and any other forum sites are barred by IT this evening. Seems a bit melodramatic to me. But as soon as I get that script I'll post details.

globalds · 20 November 2007 at 6:17PM

Encryption ....Maybe dumping that peice of advice into the sugestion box will win someone a christmas hamper

Jo_F · 20 November 2007 at 6:18PM

Hope they get that script to you soon as they have put the CB phone number up BBC 24

Good luck with the onslaught

Government have lost millions child benefit bank details

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