Government want to look at disability bank accounts to see what we are spending on: this is not good for us autistic.

Don't EVER stop using cash.

DO NOT ADOPT CBDC's "for the convenience". 

FFS stop using direct debits, and paying "interest" on everything you own! The first takes all control away from you under the guise of helping you manage, and the second is financially speaking like voluntarily submitting to having leeches attached to your financial (metaphorcal) body.

Learn the difference between your annual turnover of money and your net cashflow, and (if you can of course, according to some members and people I meet in real life, some concepts I find obvious and "basic" are too difficult to follow) work out just HOW MUCH of you weekly income directly benefits you and your family.

I think you will all find (as I did) how incredibly unselfish with your money you all are. You literally throw it into the hands of rich strangers at every turn, who in exchange enact rules to further restrict and tax your activities, using those taxes to do what exactly?

Once they get you hooked on digital money, it'll be worth whatever (((they))) say it is on any given day, and your access to it will depend on a dazziling variety of ever changing factors completely outside of YOUR control. And the amount of financial fleas will multiply...

Or what's left of it.

Not much!

Well, we'd better hope they do go down, otherwise things will get worse.

It's an old playbook - blame the vulnerable for societal problems.

It's always been despicable, still is.

I agree. It's fodder for their base. Or what's left of it.

I too have read this. It is alarming and scary. 

But - this is mostly pre-election rhetoric, aimed at gathering support from the far-right part of the electorate. In the event, it wouldn't be cost-effective to check or monitor the accounts of all people in receipt of disability benefits. I believe (happy to be corrected if I'm wrong) that the DWP can already do this, if they choose to, as they can also monitor social media accounts, in any case, so what would change? 

The Tories are caught between a rock and a hard place, behind 8n the polls on one side and under pressure from Reform for the far right vote, so at this point, they'll say pretty much anything that might help them gain support.

We claim to be a country that values our liberty but successive governments have had somewhat of an authoritarian bent. Luckily I don't think that they are as popular as they think they are.

The purse strings will be tight no matter who gets in. There’s too much debt and too much investment needed.

Seconded. They are a disgrace for even considering this. They should be offering us more support rather than doing things like this.

interesting article here: DWP plan to snoop on benefit claimants' bank accounts will hurt disabled people (bigissue.com)

yes I read that they do flag up anything unusual to stop fraud etc which is needed off course as those that are at it should get caught.

But I dont think it is good for them to know decent genuine people where they spend their money if it is hobby craft or John Lewis for example. It can lead to more controlling measures in time. Which is worrying

Cash is important, I use it for small items such as food shopping. As I believe in both cash and cards. But dont want a cashless society. 

Labour will be worse, as the Floodgates will open.

Thank God I use cash, when possible.

The DWP can already investigate people's bank accounts if they have reason to believe claimants are fraudulently claiming benefits. As I understand it, I don't think the idea is to dictate what people can and can't spend their money on, but more to check that claimants' savings are not in excess of the benefit eligibility threshold.

Somehow, I think it's unlikely the DWP would cut a claimant's benefits because they had, for example, spent money on crafting supplies. To be honest, although the DWP would be able to see that a claimant may regularly spend money at a retailer such as Hobbycraft, that is probably as much as they would know. It would take too much time and effort for the DWP to also contact retailers to request details of exactly what the claimant had bought.

Whilst it may seem like an invasion of privacy, I don't think genuine claimants have anything to fear just yet. However, I am in agreement that the UK government lacks adequate knowledge of how autism can affect us.

Unfortunately, it'll just get worse and worse the longer the Tories are in. They scapegoat their colossal failings through vulnerable people and it's disgusting. Hopefully we'll have a new government soon and be rid of this lot.

Anything like this should be opposed. It's a major infringement on our civil liberties.  I despise this government.

that is so true.

I know I wouldnt feel safe if someone was watching my purchases even if I wasnt doing anything wrong. That could prevent people from buying something they really need

The gov't has decided to find some "enemy" to focus on, and it decided to pick on the disabled. Obviously, it is too weak to fight against the real benefits scroungers, so it decided to bully those people that cannot defend themselves. I can see a lot of really disabled people ending up homeless or suicidal in the next months, while the benefits scroungers laugh at them. 

The people responsible for this deserve to burn in hell