The Tory Government has been obsessed with benefit fraud ever since there were benefits, but has been largely constrained from using technology to snuffle bank accounts by EU law.

Under the current Universal Credit (UC) rules set up, people are barred from claiming if they have more than £16,000 in savings, but the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) believes that some people are still doing so despite being over this savings threshold.

Now, thanks to Brexit, it wants to "combat benefit fraud" by giving the Department for Work and Pensions new powers, compelling banks to collect and share data on claimants’ bank accounts.

The new anti-fraud plans seeking to expand government access to bank account data would be implemented in upcoming legislation to deal with the increasing number of people on out-of-work benefits, which has risen to 5.4 million people since the onset of the pandemic.

According to the Autumn Statement: “The government will...take further action on fraud and error by legislating to increase the DWP’s access to data on benefit claimants held by banks.

“This will enable DWP to better identify fraud in the welfare system, especially in detecting fraudulent claims where there is undeclared capital, which is the second highest type of welfare fraud. These extra powers are estimated to generate around £300m per year savings by 2028-29.”

Unlike the current regime, where DWP must request the details of a suspected fraudster's bank account, the new system would require banks to run proactive checks for red flags of fraud on people’s accounts on either a monthly or weekly basis.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Mel Stride said: “These new powers send a very clear message to benefit fraudsters – we won’t stand for it. These people are taking the taxpayer for a ride, and it is right that we do all we can to bring them to justice.” .

The same rules will not apply to billionaires and Tory party donors who have vast amounts of money flowing in and out of their accounts, which no one cares about.  

So, to get some perspective, benefit fraud represents two per cent of the estimated total annual fraud in the UK. Public sector fraud, which includes benefit fraud, is £20.3 billion a year, so within this category, it accounts for just under eight. Most of this £20 billion is tax fraud, which costs the economy £14 billion annually, or 69 per cent. So we can see that both in absolute and percentage terms,  tax fraud is a much bigger issue than benefit fraud. Only identity fraud, which costs individuals £ 1.4 billion a year comes below it.