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Content type: News & Analysis
Governments weaponising data against people is one of the top themes of 2025. In this latest example, tax agency uses post-9/11 era travel surveillance to administer tax benefits, and to wrongly accuse people of fraud.The UK Government has paused cuts to parents’ child benefits after it was revealed that one of its surveillance practices had made numerous mistakes.Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HRMC), the UK tax agency, had suspended 23,500 payments to nearly 350 families, erroneously…
Content type: Long Read
The global COVID-19 health crisis not only induced a public health crisis, but has led to severe social, economic and educational crises which have laid bare any pre-existing gaps in social protection policies and frameworks. Measures identified as necessary for an effective public health response such as lockdowns have impacted billions workers and people's ability to sustain their livelihood worldwide, with countries seeing unprecedented levels of applications for welfare benefits support,…
Content type: Report
It is common for families with no recourse to public funds who attempt to access support from local authorities to have their social media monitored as part of a 'Child in Need' assessment. This practice appears to be part of a proactive strategy on the part of local authorities to discredit vulnerable families in order to refuse support. In our experience, information on social media accounts is often wildly misinterpreted by local authorities who make serious and unfounded allegations…