Contribution
My Lords, there are four amendments in this group. Three are mine; the fourth belongs to the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, and is of a different kind altogether, so I shall let him address that one. I shall just speak to Amendments 76, 78 and 79.
Amendments 76 and 78 seek a statement from Ministers about liability for errors. The Government will be demanding information from banks about the transactions, income and wealth of individuals who have never committed any crime or misdemeanour. Such individuals should have the right to know that they have been targeted and treated as second-class citizens. They would be denied financial privacy simply because they are poor, old, sick, disabled and unfortunate. They may wish to lobby their Member of Parliament against what they might regard as unjust law.
Amendment 79 asks that all the parties affected by the information notice must receive a copy of that notice. If the measure about curbing fraud on the public purse is really appropriate, because the Government are really concerned about how the public purse is being depleted, perhaps it should have been applied first to Members of this House and the other House. After all, who can forget the expenses scandal? Yet this idea of surveillance of bank accounts is applied not to Members of this House or the other House but only to those who receive benefits. Again, that indicates that something is not appropriate.
Throughout the passage of this Bill, Ministers have said little about who will be liable for the consequences arising from any errors in the information notices issued by DWP or in the information supplied by banks to DWP or about the erroneous assessments and decisions that might be made by DWP’s reliance on that information. Who would be liable for this new flood of errors? Unlike in the past, this time millions of people would be subject to surveillance; it is not on a case-by-case basis but en masse. If erroneous assessments are made, what compensation would they be entitled to, especially as those affected will not be able to afford legal advice? The Bill does not provide free legal advice to the victims who may be affected by errors made by DWP or the banks.
The Government have yet to say how many bank accounts would be subjected to surveillance. If people have half a dozen bank accounts, that could be 60 million-plus bank accounts. If those accounts have just 10 transactions a year, that is 600 million transactions. How many transactions are banks going to trawl through, and what sense will they make of it? I am sure that the Minister will give us that information today.
In view of the large volume of notices, bank accounts and transactions, errors are inevitable. The DWP already makes thousands of errors every year, and now it will be issuing even more information notices, which means inevitably more errors. It will be issuing information notices without any personal knowledge of the affected benefit claimants or their exact personal circumstances before it reaches a judgment. A 1% error in matters relating to universal credit could affect 75,000 people and ultimately have life-affecting consequences for thousands of individuals. Banks make errors too in the normal course of their business. The Post Office scandal shows that no computer system or algorithm is ultra safe. So, the Government must be prepared and have some idea of what errors will be made, how many will be made, how many people will be affected and what kind of compensation may be payable.
There is a warning about things to come from Australia, where what has become known as the Robodebt scandal happened against a background of scapegoating welfare recipients. People received letters saying they owed thousands of dollars in debt for wrong claims relating to benefits. Those so-called wrong claims were made because the algorithm used by the government departments and the banks was considered to be error prone. More than 500,000 Australians were affected by the policy and were forced to repay amounts by taking out loans, selling their property and using their savings. Just like in the Post Office scandal, many were named and shamed. People were made to feel like criminals. Eventually, the courts declared the policy to be illegal, and billions of dollars have been paid in compensation. Is that the fate that awaits this country too?
I am sure that the Government have been ultra careful with the Bill, but no matter how careful they are, errors will happen. Given the DWP’s record, people will be wrongfully prosecuted, moneys will be wrongfully clawed back and people will be scarred and will suffer. Banks will make errors too in the provision of information. So, each party needs to be aware of the liability position, and that is exactly what my amendment seeks to ensure. I beg to move.