"INNOVATIVE new methods" will be used to crack down on welfare fraud, the Chancellor has announced.
Delivering the Budget on Wednesday, Rachel Reeves said the Labour Government will expand the Department of Work and Pensions' counter fraud measures to "prevent illegal activity".
Reeves said that the changed would help to save £4.3 billion.
The announcement comes after it emerged that the DWP would be granted new powers under Sir Keir Starmer’s government, allowing them to request information from benefit claimants’ bank accounts.
The Fraud, Error and Debt Bill will require banks and other financial institutions to share data that may help identify benefit fraud.
Reeves told the Commons: “Today, I am also taking three steps to ensure that welfare spending is more sustainable.
“First, we inherited the last government’s plans to reform the work capability assessment. We will deliver those savings as part of fundamental reforms to the health and disability benefits system that the Work and Pensions Secretary [Liz Kendall, below] will bring forward.
“Third, the Government will shortly be publishing the 'Get Britain Working' white paper tackling the root causes of inactivity with an integrated approach across health, education and welfare.
“And we will provide £240 million for 16 new trailblazer projects targeted at those who are economically inactive and most at risk of being out of education, employment or training to get people into work and reduce the benefits bill.”
Speaking last month, Mikey Erhardt, a campaigner at Disability Rights UK, said: “The Government’s latest plans are essentially a digital sledgehammer to crack the tiniest nut.
“These new powers could see millions deprived of the presumption of innocence, adding to the criminalisation we already face in a punitive welfare system that often seeks to sanction people into work, whether we are able to or not.”
