New questions over DWP fraud investigations after it wrongly threatens couple… over 88p

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is facing fresh questions over how it carries out fraud investigations after it threatened to suspend the benefits of a disabled woman over a savings account it wrongly claimed belonged to her husband.

Chris Williams and his disabled wife Vicky, from Wolverhampton, were told they had just two weeks to provide information to clear their names before her income-related employment and support allowance (ESA) was suspended.

He was told in a letter earlier this month that DWP had “received information” that there was an ISA savings account and a current account in his name, with his national insurance number, address and date of birth.

Disability News Service (DNS) has seen the DWP letter, which added: “If you don’t send us the information we need by 29 February 2024 your claim will be suspended.”

But when Williams asked NatWest to provide written proof that the account was not his, so he could pass it to DWP, he was told there was nothing they could do as he was not a NatWest customer.

The DWP letter caused him and his wife significant distress.

His wife, Vicky Clarke-Williams, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1986 and now relies on care from her husband – who became her full-time carer about eight years ago – as well as two care workers and a personal assistant.

But she also experiences significant mental distress, and her husband said the DWP “put her stress levels through the roof”.

She told DNS: “I feel insecure, angry, I feel like a second-class citizen and a scrounger.

“I just want to hide away from everyone, everything.

“When the phone rings I go into panic mode, then just sheer anger and frustration.

“I have no control over my life.”

Her husband added: “Vicky feels worthless and constantly tells me she would be better off dead because she believes that is what the government and DWP wants with people like her.

“We have both had sleepless nights and cannot relax. The worry of how to pay bills if they stop our money, the worry of losing our home if the housing benefit stops.”

He added: “If I don’t provide proof our benefit will stop on 29 February and proceedings will start to recover benefit paid based on accounts I have never held.

“We are at our wits’ end with this.”

When DNS contacted NatWest on the couple’s behalf, the bank said it could find no record of an account in the Wolverhampton area with his name and date of birth.

This week, DWP sent Williams a form that he can use to provide the department with written permission to approach NatWest.

After being approached by DNS, DWP admitted that because most of their ESA entitlement was not affected by capital, the total adjustment to their benefits – if they were suspended – would be just £0.88.

After hearing this, Chris Williams told DNS: “We feel angry, exhausted, and totally let down, but sadly not surprised.

“It seems we are easy targets in a system that protects the billionaire tax-dodgers and hounds us down for receiving 88p.

“Even some media outlets see us as scroungers trying to dodge work; the trouble is that the public seem to be pulled into the same lie.

“Before the disability, Vicky was a 10-tonne press operator, 50 hours a week in a factory, and I was a lorry driver working 60-plus hours a week, keeping our country moving.

“We paid our taxes, were law-abiding and contributed to society.

“Now, through no fault of our own, we have no money.

“We lost our house because we could no longer afford the mortgage, we get accosted in carparks by people saying, ‘you’re not disabled, they give out blue badges like smarties,’ and a government thinks this is a lifestyle choice.

“Well, we certainly did not choose any of this.

“We look after the most vulnerable, they say. Well, if this is looking after, we are doomed.”

Their case has also raised fresh concerns over how DWP carries out fraud investigations and its controversial use of artificial intelligence and algorithms to spot potential fraud causes, although DNS has not been able to confirm whether or how algorithms were used in this case.

It highlights again the dangers of new powers the department is seeking through the data protection and digital information bill.

Those powers would enable DWP to force banks to scan all their accounts to find those account-holders receiving benefits, as well as people connected with those accounts.

The banks would then have to report anyone who triggered what are seen as potential indicators of fraud to DWP.

But the department’s errors with this latest case raise serious questions about whether DWP could ever be trusted with such sweeping powers.

A DWP spokesperson said: “Our enquiries into this matter are ongoing and as such it would be inappropriate to comment.”

Picture: Chris Williams and Vicky Clarke-Williams

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