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Benefit fraud Outcry over plan to take money from accounts
The Guardian
|April 26, 2025
Keir Starmer is facing a rebellion over a plan to use direct deductions from people's bank accounts and the cancellation of driving licences as part of a government crackdown on welfare fraud and over-claiming.
In an attempt to claw back the annual £9.7bn in benefit overpayments made by the Department for Work and Pensions due to fraud or error, the government has adopted Conservative plans for debt recovery.
A fraud, error and recovery bill would give the DWP the power to require banks to provide data to help identify when an applicant is not meeting the eligibility criteria for a benefit for which they have applied.
This story is from the April 26, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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