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Labour 'abandons plan to snoop on welfare claimants' bank accounts to block them from fraudulently claiming benefits'

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Cite

Heffer, G. (2026, November 9). Labour 'abandons plan to snoop on welfare claimants' bank accounts to block them from fraudulently claiming benefits'. Daily Mail. https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16277737/Labour-abandons-plan-snoop-welfare-claimants-bank-accounts-block-fraudulently-claiming-benefits.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

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Daily Mail · collected 2026-11-09 · by Greg Heffer

Quick Summary

Labour has abandoned a plan proposed by former Chancellor Rachel Reeves that would have allowed the Department for Work and Pensions to access welfare claimants' bank accounts through "Open Banking" to prevent fraudulent claims. The Treasury had estimated this could save £200 million annually from overpaid Universal Credit, which totals nearly £10 billion in total fraud and error. John Healey, Reeves' successor as shadow chancellor, scrapped the scheme due to reliance on claimants' consent; instead, DWP will ask banks to verify savings after claims are made. Critics like the Conservative Party argue that this decision shows Labour lacks a comprehensive approach to addressing welfare system issues.
Written by AI on 2026-11-10, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Why this leaning score
The article's own words the score was based on. Each is quoted verbatim and was checked against the article text before being stored, so you can find it in the original.
Reading Leans right (beta estimate) Confidence high 1 quote(s) discarded as not found in the article
Leaning: leans right for article 138133 (high confidence, 1 verified quote) · logged 2026-11-10

Story

Labour Abandons Welfare Snoop Plan
Politics · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
18
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
22%
4 of 18 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans right
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
69/100
Daily Mail's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-11-10 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Daily Mail · 10253 article(s) · 24 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 24 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Greg Heffer
78 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
The Treasury estimated this would save £200million a year by tackling some of the £1billion of overpaid Universal Credit that occurs through incorrect declarations.
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The 42-year-old Democrat will take his place in the upper house on Capitol Hill following an historic victory over his Republican rival. Mr El-Sayed's win was part of a 'blue tsunami' that saw the Democrats seize control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives in a remarkable sweep.
The Prime Minister claimed a package he is poised to sign off at a Brussels summit on 20 November would be an 'opportunity to add to UK growth'.
She said: 'At the weekend the Chancellor said the Budget would provide breathing space for families and working people.
The agreements are set to form part of the Prime Minister's Brexit 'reset', which he is hoping to finalise at the Brussels summit on 20 November.
More than 830,000 low-income households will not benefit from extra support announced by John Healey at last week's Budget, a new analysis has found.
Labour is today expected to reveal which of its local power-sharing deals with the Greens it will ditch amid a furious anti-Semitism row.
Also by Greg Heffer
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 78 articles by Greg Heffer →

Topics

DWP Labour Treasury Universal Credit the Department for Work and Pensions

Subjects

Universal Credit ORG · 6× DWP ORG · 5× Labour ORG · 3× Reeves PERSON · 3× the Department for Work and Pensions ORG · 3× John Healey PERSON · 2× Andy Burnham PERSON · 1× Rachel Reeves PERSON · 1× The Telegraph ORG · 1× Treasury ORG · 1×

Narrative

'We are instead introducing the Eligibility Verification Measure (EVM), which will require banks and financial institutions to provide information where accounts meet specified criteria, giving DWP a more consistent way to identify incorrect payments and tackle fraud and error.
framing: mixed · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-10
The Treasury estimated this would save £200million a year by tackling some of the £1billion of overpaid Universal Credit that occurs through incorrect declarations.

Claims (18 extracted, 4 hedged)

Labour has abandoned plans to snoop on welfare claimants' bank accounts to block them from fraudulently claiming benefits, it has emerged. asserted
it → abandon → benefits
Ministers are reported to have scrapped a proposal to allow the Department for Work and Pensions to see the savings of people trying to claim Universal Credit. uncertain
Department → report → Credit
Those who receive Universal Credit must usually have no more than £16,000 in money, savings and investments. asserted
who → receive → money
Rachel Reeves, the former Chancellor, announced plans at her spring statement last year to introduce more ways to 'verify' the amount of savings that claimants hold. asserted
claimants → announce → that
The Treasury estimated this would save £200million a year by tackling some of the £1billion of overpaid Universal Credit that occurs through incorrect declarations. asserted
that → estimate → declarations
In total, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is estimated to overpay almost £10billion a year in welfare due to fraud and error. asserted
Department → estimate → fraud
Under Ms Reeves' proposals, DWP would have used 'Open Banking' - a system that allows banks to report the contents of bank accounts with the consent of customers - or 'face-to-face checks' to monitor claimants' savings. asserted
banks → use → savings
But her successor John Healey has scrapped the scheme with DWP instead asking banks to conduct checks on claimants' accounts after they have received Universal Credit, according to The Telegraph. uncertain
they → scrap → Telegraph
Chancellor John Healey is reported to have scrapped a proposal to allow the Department for Work and Pensions to see the savings of people trying to claim Universal Credit It comes after Prime Minister Andy Burnham last week admitted cutting the costs of Britain's ballooning welfare bill will require the Government to spend more in other areas. He suggested Labour would have to first 'invest' to tackle the almost one million young people not in education, employment or training - so-called NEETs. The PM is not expected to bring forward welfare reforms until next year, following the publication of a major report - expected before Christmas - on the NEETs crisis by ex-health secretary Alan Milburn. uncertain
PM → report → Milburn
Mr Healey's apparent decision to scrap Ms Reeves's welfare fraud policy was criticised by the Tories, who said Labour had 'completely surrendered on welfare'. asserted
Labour → scrap → welfare
Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: 'There will be no savings in this Parliament and they don't even want to make savings over the next decade. ' asserted
they → say → decade
Millions of people are trapped on benefits and hardworking taxpayers are being forced to foot an ever-growing bill. asserted
taxpayers → trap → bill
We desperately need a Government with the backbone to tackle our broken welfare system.' asserted
We → need → system
A DWP spokesman told the newspaper that Ms Reeves's scheme had been abandoned because it would have relied on the consent of benefit claimants for the Government to access their bank accounts. asserted
Government → tell → accounts
They added: 'This Government is determined to crack down on fraud and error and protect taxpayers' money. asserted
Government → add → money
The previous Open Banking proposal relied on claimant consent and could not be used in every Universal Credit claim. uncertain
proposal → rely → claim
'We are instead introducing the Eligibility Verification Measure (EVM), which will require banks and financial institutions to provide information where accounts meet specified criteria, giving DWP a more consistent way to identify incorrect payments and tackle fraud and error. asserted
accounts → introduce → fraud
'This is just one part of a comprehensive programme to tackle fraud, error and debt and EVM is expected to save £1.2billion by 2030-31.' asserted
EVM → tackle → 2030
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