Benefit cheats who can’t pay back what they owe could soon be banned from driving in a move that the Government claims is the “biggest fraud crackdown in a generation”.
Under a new plan put forward by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), officials will be able to apply to the courts for benefit fraudsters to be stripped of their driving licences if they owe the taxpayer more than £1,000, or if they have ignored previous demands for repayment.
This new Bill would also grant the Government powers to issue search warrants, enabling police to look for items such as computers and mobile phones in order to gather evidence against suspects. Banks could also be forced to hand over account information – a measure that will almost certainly be opposed by privacy campaigners as well as the banks themselves.
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