Member

I will restate the point because we need to understand the immensity of these provisions. Because it involves benefit claimants and because the word “fraud” is being tossed around, the extreme nature of what is being proposed is hidden. It is right that fraudulent uses of public money should be dealt with robustly by the Government, but under the current rules the DWP is able, as my noble friend explained, to request bank account holders’ bank transaction details if there are reasonable grounds to suspect the fraud.