Watching You: Child Support Agency Spies
IT seems that hardly a day goes by without some security bungle or other by a government agency.
This time it’s the Child Support Agency in the firing line after it was revealed that CSA staff have been allowed to carry out credit checks on friends and neighbours. Just for the hell of it.
According to the Mirror, inexperienced staff were allowed to utilise credit search agency Equifax to snoop on individuals’ personal finances.
According to an unnamed CSA source, “This is a scandal. They gave access to part-time and temp workers they knew nothing about. They could get info on anyone in the country with a credit history.”
While former Scotland Yard fraud office Tom Craig is also concerned. He says the “risk is colossal - it is a major data protection breach”.
What is all the more worrying is the news that CSA bosses were fully aware of the situation.
We might as well all just write our bank details on our foreheads in indelible ink.
Posted: 16th, May 2007 | In: Money Comments (2) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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May 23rd, 2007 at 5:23 pm
It is time to stop the superfluous CSA legislation that criminalises people for not paying the overstated amounts that do not properly take into account their salary and living expenses.
CSA claim assessments can only be challenged for 28 days for errors, so if you present them with proof of evidence when available it is ignored.
Staff also maliciously ignore changes of circumstances etc.
The Agency should be eliminated, as they have no right to interfere with peoples lives. The massive waste of costs for the ineffective Government Agency, could quite easily be reduced by the introduction of legislation to set up Accounts to pay spousal maintenance to cover living expenses, and also set up Children’s Trust Funds for additional money to be invested for their legacy.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:18 am
This is appalling, don’t we have enough problems with identity fraud without allowing access to this kind of data to anyone on a temporary assignment. This should always be on a ‘vetted’ basis.
The CSA has never achieved what it was set up for (though opinions on what that was vary wildly!) and has just careered from embarrasment to disaster.