More than 1,100 Department of Work and Pensions staff have received official warnings in the last five years for prying on sensitive benefits records, Government figures show.

Since 2008, 110 DWP workers with access to files on pensions, child support payments, tax credits, Job Seekers Allowance and other benefits have been issued with oral warnings for “inappropriate access or browsing of personal/customer records”.

A further 422 staff were handed written warnings and 585 got a final written warning, a Freedom of Information Act request revealed.

Reported by The Telegraph. You can read the full story here.

I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.