The Department for Work and Pensions is launching a comprehensive crackdown on benefit fraud through a new awareness campaign and controversial bank account monitoring powers. The dual approach aims to combat billions in annual overpayments while raising concerns about civil liberties and vulnerable claimants.
DWP Minister Andrew Western confirmed in a written parliamentary response that a new campaign will launch at the end of January 2026. The initiative targets three key areas where fraud is most prevalent: living together situations, self-employment, and capital and savings. The campaign will run across on-demand video, out-of-home advertising, digital display, paid search and paid social platforms.
New Surveillance Powers
The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Accountability) Bill cleared both Houses of Parliament, granting DWP unprecedented powers to monitor bank accounts. The department can now obtain bank statements from individuals believed able to repay welfare debts, recover money directly from fraudsters' accounts, and apply to courts to suspend driving licenses for debts over £1,000. MPs rejected an amendment to expand independent oversight by 268 votes to 80.
Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman Steve Darling warned MPs: «We still have concerns that there is a blanket approach to this, and effectively, mass fishing will occur with the proposals as before us.» Labour MP Neil Duncan-Jordan raised proportionality concerns, calculating: «If the algorithms are scanning the bank accounts of 10 million people, an error rate of just 1 per cent will result in 100,000 cases where innocent people are wrongly investigated.»
Minister Western defended the safeguards, telling MPs: «We're very clear that nobody vulnerable or otherwise should be de-banked as a result of this Bill. [...]» He emphasized that human decision-makers must be involved at all points and that departments cannot act solely on bank data. Conservative MP Rebecca Smith expressed disappointment that oversight amendments were rejected but welcomed the government's commitment to feed concerns into the independent reviewer's work.
The crackdown addresses a significant problem: benefit overpayments reached £9.5 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, representing 3.3 percent of total benefits spending. Over 8 million people receive Universal Credit, with approximately 23.7 million individuals across Great Britain claiming DWP benefits. The campaign aims to increase awareness of nearly 20 circumstances that claimants must report, from changes in living arrangements to capital and savings.
Note: This article was created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
