Overview
- The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill is now in the House of Lords, with report stage scheduled for October 15.
- The State Pension is explicitly excluded from the new data‑matching powers and cannot be added later by regulation.
- The Eligibility Verification Measure will require banks to match accounts against specified indicators and share limited data, not spending histories, with penalties for oversharing.
- Any action affecting a claim will involve human review, and new recovery tools include direct deduction orders after at least three months of bank statements are obtained via account information notices.
- The government cites projected savings of about £1.5bn over five years and estimates 50,000–100,000 overpayments identified annually, as civil‑liberties and pensioner groups voice privacy and fairness concerns.