DWP and Passport Agency

Fatima27

Hi

Does anyone know what sort of information the Passport agency is allowed to give out to the DWP?

Can they just ask for personal information or can they ask how many times a person has been abroad?

I have been claiming IS for less than a year as a lone parent and in that time I went away for a couple weeks. Before then I was working and traveled quite a bit. I just had a compliance interview and they were keen to know how many time I had been away prior to claiming IS. Because I have lost my passport they said they would make inquiries with the passport agency. Just curious as to what information they can request.

Thanks

Voyager2002

Bizarre... it is none of their business how many times you went abroad before you were claiming, so long as you continued to be habitually resident in the UK. And the passport agency restricts itself to issuing passports and would know nothing at all about whether or how many times a passport is used. Come to that, they are not good at sharing information: I had an experience when they flatly refused to pass on information to the Foreign Office! The UK Borders Agency scans the passports of people arriving in the UK and perhaps leaving, but I have no idea what happens to that information.

TELLIT01

If the OP has been out of the country for periods in excess of 3 months in the past 2 years it is relevant to their claim for benefit. Anybody, UK nationals included, needs to undergo a Habitual Residency Test in those circumstances.
As Voyager2002 says though, it would be the Borders Agency who would have the information rather than the Passport Agency.

[Deleted User]

they need to be notified if you leave the country for a holiday whilst on benefits

Fatima27

Thanks for the replies guys. Yea I notified them when I was leaving and when I was back and sent in a copy of my flight reservation. And because it was only Europe I went to there is nothing in the passport like stamps.

Only stamps are from when I wasn't claiming. Just found it very intrusive that she felt she had the right to ask me about when I wasn't claiming.

elmer

All government agencies share information for data matching for fraud. You sign to agree to this for all means tested benefits which includes Income support

TELLIT01

Fatima27 wrote: »

Just found it very intrusive that she felt she had the right to ask me about when I wasn't claiming.

I can understand your feeling on the subject but, as mentioned previously, she would need to know whether or not HRT was required. The questions should have been asked when you first claimed IS, not a year down the road.

tomtom256

Section 122 of the Social Security Admin Act allows the sharing of information between relevant government departments.

The DWP and LA staff for that matter can ask for whatever they believe is relevant.

If you have done nothing wrong whilst claiming what have you to worry about regarding any checks?

Surely any checks will come back ok?

missapril75

If they had some reason to think there were other trips abroad during the period of the claim and for any number of reasons that meant there were legitimate doubts about entitlement - simply because regular trips abroad may very well reveal some genuine reasons to question true entitlement and they may be perfectly explainable too - then checking all periods abroad (as well as countries visited) would go a long way to identifying a pattern if one existed.

Sometimes there's a lack of imagination on these boards but plenty of "how very dare they" indignation.