200,000 Department for Work and Pensions claimants have been warned they have "wrongly" been triggered for "fraud and error". The DWP algorithm has "wrongly flagged" 200,000 people for possible fraud and error, according to the Guardian newspaper.
Two-thirds of housing benefit claims were marked as high risk in last three years were legitimate, figures show. Turn2us, a charity that supports people who rely on benefits, said the figures showed it was time for the government to "work closely with actual users so that automation works for people rather than against them".
Susannah Copson, a legal and policy officer at Big Brother Watch, said: "This is yet another example of DWP focusing on the prospect of algorithm-led fraud detection that seriously underperforms in practice. In reality, DWP's overreliance on new technologies puts the rights of people who are often already disadvantaged, marginalised and vulnerable in the backseat."
She warned of "a real danger that DWP repeats this pattern of bold claims and poor performance with future data-grabbing tools". She went on: "It was only recently that the government tried -- and failed -- to push through intrusive measures to force banks to conduct mass algorithmic monitoring of all customer accounts under the premise of tackling social security fraud and error.
"Although the powers failed to make it through legislative wash-up, concerns for DWP's relentless pursuit of privacy-invading tech remain." The system is for sale to local authorities on the government's digital marketplace website from a company called D4S DigiStaff.
It tells councils: "Our innovative HBAA intelligent automation solution will allow you to process all of your reviews with minimal impact on your staff." The DWP said it was unable to comment in the pre-election period when approached by the Guardian newspaper.
Labour, which could be in charge of the country from July 4, has also been approached to comment.