Disclosure of Benefits Being Claimed to Banks

Department for Work and Pensions did not have the information requested.

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

I understand that benefits paid into the claimants bank are done so with an accompanying reference that appears on bank statements. I further understand that this reference is made up of the claimant's national insurance number and the initials of the benefit being paid (e.g. for Employment Support Allowance this would be "esa").

Continuing with the example of ESA, this in effect means that the DWP is disclosing to the claimant's bank that they are in receipt of Employment Support Allowance.

Please confirm how the DWP obtains consent (implied or explicit) from benefit claimants that it may disclose this highly sensitive information to the claimant's bank?

If the DWP does not obtain implied or explicit consent please provide any information held that proves or suggests that the DWP disclosure is not a breach of the Data Protection Act?

Yours faithfully,

John Slater

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

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CD Official Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

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Dear Mr Slater
 
Please see the attached letter.
 
 
 
Business Management & Improvement Team
Finance Group | Information Exploitation & Security Directorate | Please
consider the environment before printing.
 
 

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CD Official Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

 
Dear Mr Slater,
 
Please see the attached letter.
 
       
        Official Correspondence Team
        People, Communication and Capability Division - Information
Exploitation and Security Directorate | Please consider the environment
before printing.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'Disclosure of Benefits Being Claimed to Banks'.

The answer provided by the DWP is incompatible with the FOIA as it consisted of the author’s personal opinion rather than the requested information. In order to be compatible with the FOIA any response must provide the requested information, cite one of more statutory exemptions or state that the information is not held.

The DWP always requires consent to process a personal data of any kind and attempting to play silly word games about not requiring consent to pay benefits is unhelpful. It is also factually incorrect as there is an implied consent that benefits will be paid if the person satisfies the requirements for each particular benefit.

Returning to the matter at hand of the DWP not having consent to disclose to a claimant’s or anyone else’s bank that the claimant is in receipt of a benefit.

Schedule 1 Part 1.1 of the DPA states:
Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless—
(a) at least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met, and
(b) in the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is also met.

Schedule 2 states:
1 The data subject has given is consent to the processing.

Schedule 3 states:
1 The data subject has given his explicit consent to the processing of the personal data.

As the author of the original response correctly identified sensitive personal data is defined in Part 1 Preliminary S.2 of the DPA as:

Sensitive personal data.
In this Act “sensitive personal data” means personal data consisting of information as to—
(a) the racial or ethnic origin of the data subject,
(b) his political opinions,
(c) his religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature,
(d) whether he is a member of a trade union (within the meaning of the M1TradeUnion and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992),
(e) his physical or mental health or condition,
(f) his sexual life,
(g) the commission or alleged commission by him of any offence, or
(h) any proceedings for any offence committed or alleged to have been committed by him, the disposal of such proceedings or the sentence of any court in such proceedings.

Point (e) clearly defines that sensitive personal information includes anything that covers the physical health, mental health or specific medical condition of the data subject.

By supplying the initials of any sickness/disability related benefit, such as ESA, DLA or PIP, to any bank the DWP is clearly notifying said bank that their customer has physical or mental health related illness(es) that are sufficiently serious to warrant payment of such benefits.

Given that vilification of people on benefits has increased dramatically in the media over recent years it is not unreasonable that people claiming benefits would not wish people, other than those they have told and trust, to know.

It is perfectly clear that under the DPA the DWP requires the consent of the claimant to tell their bank that they are in receipt of a specific sickness/disability related benefit. I suggest that it is also clear that such information is ‘sensitive personal information’ as defined by the DPA. Therefore, the DWP requires the explicit consent of claimants to pass on this information.

Therefore please comply correctly with my original request. If the DWP fails to comply with the FOIA I will complain to the ICO under both the FOIA and the DPA.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...

Yours faithfully,

John Slater

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FoI mailbox.
 
By the next working day your request will be forwarded to the relevant
information owner within the Department who will respond to you direct. 
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally
expect a response within 20 working days.
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
For further information on the Freedom of Information Act within DWP
please click on the link below.
 
[1]http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...
 

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References

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1. http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...

CD Official Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Slater
 
Please see the attached letter.
 
 
       
Official Correspondence Team
People, Communication and Capability Division - Information Exploitation
and Security Directorate | Please consider the environment before
printing.
 
 

show quoted sections

CD Official Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

 
 
Dear Mr Slater,
 
Please see the attached letter.
 
Official Correspondence Team
        People, Communication and Capability Division - Information
Exploitation and Security Directorate | Please consider the environment
before printing.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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