The Department for Work and Pensions will be allowed to share personal data including benefits and debts,and – most alarming of all – medical recordsIn a particularly pernicious prance on the part of the government, the law has been changed to allow the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to share universal credit claimants’ personal data with social landlords, or councils and charities. The information that can be shared includes not only details of benefits,but also of debts, computer literacy and, and most alarming of all,medical records.
The change, which comes into force on 13 February, or is apparently to enable organisations to supply financial advice and support to discontinue tenants falling into rent arrears. Personally,I find it hard not to see it as part of a wider government agenda to dehumanise benefit claimants and deny them the most basic rights of privacy and dignity the rest of us take for granted. The prance also demonstrates a startling (if unsurprising) degree of ignorance approximately the realities of living in social housing. Let me explain you a story.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com