New style ESA - being asked bank details on the phone?

boldaslove

Hi,

I applied for “new style” ESA as I’m self employed and lost income when I needed to self isolate because of having COVID. I applied online and had a few missed calls about a week later and a voicemail saying they were trying to contact me but not leaving any contact details for me to get back to them on. A couple of weeks passed and I started getting multiple missed calls and texts claiming to be from the DWP saying they needed to speak to me about my ESA claim urgently.

I finally managed to get through to them on the phone last week and after asking me to confirm my NI number the guy started asking me to confirm my account details - he wanted full sort code, account number etc before he’d even confirmed my address. When I questioned him about this he got really defensive and said they were doing standard security checks. I know from working in call centres previously that you only need to confirm 3 pieces of information for data protection purposes. I googled the number and it seemed to be legit but something just felt really off about the conversation and I hung up. 

Has anyone else had this experience with the DWP? I’ve done SEISS grants over the past year and haven’t had them requesting bank details over the phone for that?

tacpot12

I've not had this experience, but I think you are right to be wary. At this stage, you should call the DWP on a number you have got from GOV.UK, nowhere else. They will need your bank details in order to pay you, so once you are happy that you are speaking to the DWP, you can give them your bank details over the phone.  

poppy12345

Several years of experience with dealing with DWP and all the times i've rang them i've never once been asked to confirm my actual bank account number or sort code. If they ask you a bank question, it's just for you to confirm who you bank with, or what bank your payments go into.

I know they do ring claimants that are owed backdated money to ask them to confirm bank details.

ItsComingRome

If you've contacted them on a legitimate number then, we'll, they're most likely legitimate.

Asking for bank details isn't particularly untoward, there's not much anyone can do with them other than setting up Direct Debits in your name (which are easy to recall under the DD guarantee.)

It's not particularly relevant what you went through with SEISS, as that's handled by HMRC, not the DWP.