Overview
- The Department for Work and Pensions has started limited checks after issuing its first eligibility verification notice, instructing banks to match accounts receiving specified benefit payments against DWP-set eligibility indicators.
- The measure targets Universal Credit, Pension Credit and New Style Employment and Support Allowance and explicitly excludes State Pension; it can cover linked and joint accounts that are tied to a payment account.
- Banks may only return limited information when an indicator is met, such as account holder names, account numbers, balances and dates of foreign transactions, and they can be fined for sharing full statements or transaction-level data.
- The DWP says returns from banks will act as prompts for further enquiries, that final decisions will be made by trained staff rather than automated systems, and that claimants will be contacted through their Universal Credit journal or by phone, letter or text and can seek a mandatory reconsideration.
- The powers come from the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025 and are being run as a test-and-learn pilot the government says could save about £1.2 billion over five years and identify tens of thousands of overpayments, while civil-liberty groups have criticised the approach as intrusive.