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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Robert Booth UK technology editor

‘Serious concerns’ about DWP’s use of AI to read correspondence from benefit claimants

Silver sign with black writing indicating the office of the Department of Work and Pensions in Westminster, London
The Department of Work and Pensions has been piloting use of the ‘White Mail’ AI since at least 2023. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

When your mailbag brims with 25,000 letters and emails every day, deciding which to answer first is daunting. When lurking within are pleas for help from some of the country’s most vulnerable people, the stakes only get higher.

That is the challenge facing the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as correspondence floods in from benefit applicants and claimants – of which there are more than 20 million, including pensioners, in the UK. The DWP thinks it may have found a solution in using artificial intelligence to read it all first – including handwritten missives.

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