New laws are anticipated to be part of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement to allow a massive crackdown on benefits claimants. According to reports said to have come from government briefings long-awaited legislation is set to come in to allow officials to snoop on the bank accounts of claimants.

For example they would be able to check a person’s savings - people who have £16,000 or more are not allowed to claim Universal Credit. They would also be able to ask anyone at all for information which could incriminate a person - for example if a person makes any payments or is working in any capacity when they say they are not.

Under the shake-up, benefit claimants could have their bank accounts checked every month by the DWP to make sure they’re not “lying” about savings - and it could save the government £500 million in the first five years.

The DWP has previously said it wants the powers to arrest people, search their homes, approach anyone or any company which might have information on them - and seize items including computers and mobile phones and the right to force people to give passwords by law.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is set to unveil the changes in the budget - and in this case it is said to save £500 million from fraudulent claims in five years. The suggested plan has come under fire from civil liberties campaigners who believe this is far too intrusive and represents a ‘snooper’s charter’.

So what exactly is in the possible legislation and what will it mean? According to government policy documents there are a number of powers which have been suggested would be helpful to tackle benefit fraud. Not all of this may be in Wednesday's autumn statement but it is on the record that the DWP has asked for these powers when there is enough parliamentary time.

The DWP wants to modernise its information-gathering powers and a document said: “The passage of time has exposed the rigidity and limitations of these powers. Whilst innovative for their time, and having served us well since their inception, they are no longer flexible enough to investigate many of the modern types of fraud we see today, let alone be future-proofed for the fraud of the future.”

Who can the DWP currently get information from?

DWP can only seek information from certain named organisations as set out in legislation, such as financial institutions, childcare providers, utility companies, landlords and credit reference providers. The law change would remove this restriction to widen this list and allow them to require any information holder that they believe could hold information to prove or disprove a fraud allegation, to provide that information to us. Previously the powers could only be used by a specially trained and authorised DWP officer when the information being requested is in support of an ongoing criminal investigation.

This restriction would be removed meaning criminal investigations would not have to be taking place before information could be gathered. All DWP payments would be covered - previously powers could only be used on certain specific ones.

An example of how it could work:

The DWP said that one example might be if a claimant is in receipt of Universal Credit and states they are not working. An allegation is received stating the subject is working as a self-employed personal trainer at a gym and has investments that are undeclared. The suspect is not self-reporting any income, capital investments or expenditure. Action taken: DWP officers obtain evidence of the claimant’s payments to the gym for rental space, details of their clients and hours of attendance. It is also discovered that the claimant promotes his personal training in newspapers and trade magazines. DWP officers obtain details of the insurance requirements placed on the suspect.

Using the new powers, DWP officers are able to obtain evidence from the newspapers and the magazines with details of who placed the adverts, payment arrangements and copies of the adverts. It is also possible for DWP officers to obtain evidence from the investment management company and it is discovered that the claimant has invested £20,000 into a scheme.

Officers could then swoop and interview the claimant under caution and the person would be prosecuted for fraud. The DWP says this would not have been possible under the previous legislation.

Giving DWP investigating officers the power to make arrests and conduct search and seizures

Currently the DWP is reliant on police to conduct searches. The DWP wants powers “so our officers will be able to undertake arrests and apply to search and seize evidence in criminal investigations” to “enable us to investigate and disrupt serious and organised fraud activity more decisively and quickly.” Officials say they would only use it when they have ‘a strong reasonable belief that an indictable offence has been committed'.

An example of how it could work:

The DWP gives an example where it is suspected that Universal Credit claims have been made using false identity documents amounting to £270,000. Initial enquiries were conducted as part of the investigation, so there are sufficient grounds to consider the arrest of the suspects.

Using the new powers DWP offers get a warrant from court directly to search for evidence. They say in this case suspects would be arrested by DWP officers and taken to the police station for processing and consideration of detention by the police.

DWP conducts interviews under caution with the suspects. DWP seizes fraudulent items that were found during a search of the suspects home addresses, including mobile phones used to provide phone numbers for false claims and suspected stolen identity documents. A warning and notice is served for the passcodes to the digital devices to preserve evidence.