Benefit data discs ‘held for year’

Press Association

The Conservatives have branded a report that an ex-contractor at the DWP had two discs with thousands of benefit claimants’ details for more than a year “disturbing”.

The News of the World reports that two discs were found at the home of a former contractor to the Department for Work and Pensions.

The worker discovered that she had inadvertently forgotten to return the discs when her work with the DWP finished - and expressed her surprise that no one had checked that she had done so.

The two new missing discs reveal what kind of benefits the people receive. The data on the discs can be accessed by any standard computer and is not encrypted or protected by a password.

The blunder comes days after the Government was forced to admit it had lost the personal details of more than 25 million people in the post.

That crisis was sparked when a junior official at HM Revenue & Customs official in Tyne and Wear sent two unencrypted CDs containing details of child benefit claimants by courier to the National Audit office in London. The discs were not recorded or registered.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling said of the latest blunder: “This is an exceptionally disturbing new development involving highly sensitive personal information.

“The fact that it hasn’t been copy protected is further evidence of a cavalier attitude towards data protection in Government departments. Ministers need to explain urgently how they are going to put things right.”

On Saturday it emerged confidential information on millions of investors is regularly being sent through the post to HM Revenue and Customs without proper security.

Investment managers in the City are required to mail personal data on their clients to HMRC on unencrypted computer discs despite the recent outcry.

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