Member

Finally, one defence used by the DWP is that direct deduction order powers will not be promiscuously used, as they will be more used as a deterrent to primarily encourage repayment. Indeed, the impact assessment acknowledges that similar HMRC powers to deduct money from bank accounts were only used in 19 out of 22,500 cases evaluated. However, under these proposed direct deduction order powers, the debtor and any joint account holders will already have had their bank statements disclosed by their bank to the DWP before any measurable deterrent effect could be said to apply. This seems disproportionate for the Bill to give the Government the power to look through sensitive financial information in circumstances where the underlying power is hardly ever expected to be invoked and before the purported deterrent can even be said to have taken effect. Instead, my proposal is that these amendments will be a deterrent to the Government overreaching, knowing that powers will need to gain judicial authorisation. That might just rein in any cavalier attitudes to matters of privacy and proportionality in relation to welfare claimants being investigated. I beg to move.