Do all DWP staff have access to private records

rotoguys

Being serious for a moment, I am so surprised that the Civil Service have adopted this way of working. It just shows how paranoid people have become.

When I was in the service, not the DWP by the way but another one that people have always hated!- everybody had open access to all of the systems - what systems they were!! I could review any case or anybody in the country.

The only thing that you were supposed to report - more so for your own protection than anything else, was if you were related or that you had a personal involvement. You could continue, but most people found that you could not be objective if it was someone close, so you handed it over to someone else.

The question of security or privacy never came into it. It was a forgone conclusion that you were covered under the Offical Secrets Act and that you were of good character. It was in a time when Civil Servants never told a lie and could be trusted implicity with confidential information.

StopTheWorld_2

So Rotoguys what point are you trying to make? That you think all current DWP employees are completely trustworthy and should be given total access to everybody's records?

Anyway it seems they need a person's National Insurance Number to look up their records

robredz

They would need a nat ins no, a sufficient level of system access, and the system randomly flags up on accesses to investigate, if flagged they have to fill in a form to justify and corrobaorate exactly why they were accessing that particular record, if there was no legitimate reason, they arte up the creek

rotoguys

StopTheWorld wrote: »

So Rotoguys what point are you trying to make? That you think all current DWP employees are completely trustworthy and should be given total access to everybody's records?

Anyway it seems they need a person's National Insurance Number to look up their records

Not at all. What I am saying is how times have changed.

All you needed in my day was either the name, address, post code or indeed the NI number.

Shame really that today Civil Servants are not trusted enough to use their unlimited powers as they used to do.

It also used to be that most Civil Servants, certainly in my old department, were autonomous. They made the decision and took responsibility for it. Of course there were sample audits of the quality of decisions, but every Civil Servant I knew took their job seriously.

StopTheWorld_2

rotoguys wrote: »

Not at all. What I am saying is how times have changed.

All you needed in my day was either the name, address, post code or indeed the NI number.

Shame really that today Civil Servants are not trusted enough to use their unlimited powers as they used to do.

It also used to be that most Civil Servants, certainly in my old department, were autonomous. They made the decision and took responsibility for it. Of course there were sample audits of the quality of decisions, but every Civil Servant I knew took their job seriously.

Unfortunately a lot of the Civil Servants nowadays are not trustworthy. In the olden days your bank manager had loads of autonomy as well. Now it's mainly down to credit scoring and either the computer or some underwriters in central office will make the decisions

StopTheWorld_2

robredz wrote: »

They would need a nat ins no, a sufficient level of system access, and the system randomly flags up on accesses to investigate, if flagged they have to fill in a form to justify and corrobaorate exactly why they were accessing that particular record, if there was no legitimate reason, they arte up the creek

I once rang up the Benefits Agency to ask about an application. Because I couldn't remember my national insurance number at the time, they could not look up my file. Even though I was able to give them my name, address and other security information.

rotoguys

robredz wrote: »

They would need a nat ins no, a sufficient level of system access, and the system randomly flags up on accesses to investigate, if flagged they have to fill in a form to justify and corrobaorate exactly why they were accessing that particular record, if there was no legitimate reason, they arte up the creek

That is what surprises me! It seems that Civil Servants today cannot be trusted with the powers that they used to have.
I never had to justify anything I did.
Still times move on I suppose - shame really as it just goes to show that if they are now restricted in this way, there are either paranoid Ministers in charge or that the trust in the honesty and integrity has all but gone in todays Civil Servants.
Personally, under this regime, I could never have put up with that level of scrutiny.

rotoguys

StopTheWorld wrote: »

Unfortunately a lot of the Civil Servants nowadays are not trustworthy. In the olden days your bank manager had loads of autonomy as well. Now it's mainly down to credit scoring and either the computer or some underwriters in central office will make the decisions

Unfortunately you seem to be right. Sad world we live in

rotoguys

StopTheWorld wrote: »

I once rang up the Benefits Agency to ask about an application. Because I couldn't remember my national insurance number at the time, they could not look up my file. Even though I was able to give them my name, address and other security information.

Take it from me that they could have found the file.

Do you honestly think that anybody under investigation could only be traced with their NI number?

It don't work like that.

We had links to the DVLA, Passport Office, Immigration and many other computer data bases including those used by the retail industry - the two main reward cards at the two main supermarkets!!

Mind you the only link we didn't have was to the PNC. For some obscure reason the Home Office liked to keep that one to themselves, although we had to apply for a search which was never questioned.

StopTheWorld_2

rotoguys wrote: »

Take it from me that they could have found the file.

Do you honestly think that anybody under investigation could only be traced with their NI number?

It don't work like that.

We had links to the DVLA, Passport Office, Immigration and many other computer data bases including those used by the retail industry - the two main reward cards at the two main supermarkets!!

Mind you the only link we didn't have was to the PNC. For some obscure reason the Home Office liked to keep that one to themselves, although we had to apply for a search which was never questioned.

Well I wasn't under investigation was I? I was just a straightforward applicant dealing with a low-level customer services person. Obviously those doing investigations would have greater powers but I find it really rather unlikely that your average minimum wage customer services person has access to DVLA records, Tesco Clubcard data etc - or that they'd be granted the right to search the PNC.