Can DWP legally access my bank account?

IAmWales

Gaz1971 wrote: »

Yes but they haven't asked the OP for statements for the account, but have already got access to his accounts, I thought they needed a court order first?

No, a DWP authorised officer can access bank account information if they believe they have sufficient grounds.

Gaz1971

WHy would they suddenly think they have grounds though?

dippy3103

Gaz1971 wrote: »

Yes but they haven't asked the OP for statements for the account, but have already got access to his accounts, I thought they needed a court order first?

Authorised officers can under the Social Security Fraud Act - only for the detection of fraud.

Gaz1971

Yes but what reason do they have to suddenly check his bank account? What has he done to make them suspect him of fraud?

Tucker

A Compliance Officer can't access bank accounts, so I doubt that's the source of the information.

There's no investigation via Compliance, they just act on information received. It's more probable someone has informed them you have another source of income.

Even when there's a investigation, obtaining obtrusive financial data such as bank statements has to be reasonable and proportionate to the suspected offence. They certainly can't be obtain without significant justification and a reasonable and specific allegation and they will help prove an offence.

dippy3103

Gaz1971 wrote: »

Yes but what reason do they have to suddenly check his bank account? What has he done to make them suspect him of fraud?

No idea. Compliance officers don't have access to SSFA powers.

Could always phone and ask what lead to the interview- we can only speculate

tomtom256

Tucker wrote: »

A Compliance Officer can't access bank accounts, so I doubt that's the source of the information.

There's no investigation via Compliance, they just act on information received. It's more probable someone has informed them you have another source of income.

Even when there's a investigation, obtaining obtrusive financial data such as bank statements has to be reasonable and proportionate to the suspected offence. They certainly can't be obtain without significant justification and a reasonable and specific allegation and they will help prove an offence.

A lot of compliance cases come from Local Service Investigations as there was insufficient evidence to prove an offence beyond reasonable doubt.

This could explain how and why the Local Service Compliance had a copy of the bank statements.

Significant justification is not required, it just has to be necessary and proportionate. i.e. customer received unknown income 8 months ago, so you would ask for statements going back 8 - 9 months instead of going back say two years.