Lemmy - RazBot

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/62370804

Keir Starmer is facing a rebellion over his plan to use direct deductions from people’s bank accounts and the cancellation of driving licences as part of a government crackdown on welfare fraud and over-claiming.

In an attempt to claw back the annual £9.7bn in benefit overpayments made by the Department for Work and Pensions due to fraud or error, the government has adopted Conservative plans for debt recovery.

A fraud, error and recovery bill would give the DWP the power to require banks to provide data to help identify when an applicant is not meeting the eligibility criteria for a benefit for which they have applied.

The bill would allow the government to demand bank statements to identify debtors who have sufficient funds to repay what they owe through fraud or error in a claim. The DWP would then have the power to recover money directly from bank accounts of those not on benefits or in PAYE employment who are identified as having the means to pay.

Those who repeatedly fail to repay funds could fall prey to a suspended DWP disqualification order that would disqualify them from holding a driving licence.

Liz Kendall, the secretary of state for work and pensions, has said the powers are necessary to deal with a “broken welfare system” but she is facing opposition from her own backbenches.

Amendments tabled by the Labour MP for Poole, Neil Duncan-Jordan, that would force the government to drop key strands of the bill are supported by a growing number of MPs in Starmer’s party.

The amendments, backed by 17 named Labour MPs, would ensure that only those suspected of fraud rather than being the victim of an error were subjected to surveillance, “allowing the government to target criminality without monitoring the public”, Duncan-Jordan said.

The Labour MP is also proposing to remove the power to apply to a court to strip people of their driving licences due to debt, describing the policy as a “poverty penalty”.

Writing in the Guardian, Duncan-Jordan, who was elected for the first time in 2024, accused Starmer’s government of “resurrecting Tory proposals for mass spying on people who receive state support”.

He writes that the legislation “would compel banks to carry out financial surveillance of welfare recipients”, adding that “given the volume of accounts involved, this will be completed by an algorithm”.

“If the software flags a possible overpayment, whether due to fraud or error, the bank will report the individual to the Department for Work and Pensions for further investigation”, Duncan-Jordan writes. “By default, welfare recipients would be treated as suspects, simply because they need support from the state.”

He adds that the government should learn from the Post Office scandal in which a faulty computer system led to hundreds of people being falsely accused of fraud and error.

He writes: “The risk of a Horizon-style scandal on a massive scale is glaringly obvious when millions are being monitored. It will be disabled people, carers, pensioners and the very poorest people who are impacted by wrongful investigations and forced to endure burdensome appeals to prove their innocence.”

Kendall has said the use of “direct deduction orders” allowing the recovery of funds from claimants could save the taxpayer £500m a year once fully rolled out.

In the 2023-24 financial year, the DWP estimates that benefit overpayments due to fraud or error by claimants totalled £9.7bn.

But the banking industry has raised concerns that it will be forced to hand over account information of claimants in cases where there are indications they may have been paid benefits incorrectly.

The legislation is seen to potentially clash with the obligations of banks under a Financial Conduct Authority consumer duty to protect customers who are vulnerable due to their financial situation.

Last week, the Guardian revealed that the regulatory policy committee, a government watchdog, had raised concerns that ministers had understated the impact on the poorest of its plans to directly deduct benefit overpayments from people’s bank accounts.

The DWP has been contacted for comment.

Range

• Small battery range: 240km
• Big battery range: 385km

Motor

• Motor: Single motor, rear wheel drive
• Power: 150kW
• Torque: 264Nm
• 0-100km: 8s
• Top speed: 145km/h

Dimensions

• Bed length: 1.5m
• Vehicle length: 4.4m
• Vehicle height: 1.8m
• Vehicle width: 1.8m

Comparison

• 2025 Kia Niro length: 4.4m
• 2025 Ford Maverick length: 5.1m
• 1985 Toyota Pickup/Hilux length: 4.7m

Weights

• Curb weight 1634kg
• Max payload 650kg
• Max towing 454kg

Charging

• Port: NACS
• Onboard charger: 11kW
• Level 1 AC, 3.6kw, 20-100%: 11h
• Level 2 AC, 11kW, 20-100%: under 5h
• Level 3 DC, 120kW, 20-80%: under 30m

Safety

• Traction Control
• Electronic Stability Control
• Forward Collision Warning
• Automatic Emergency Braking
• 2-stage Driver/Passenger Airbags
• Full Length Side Curtain Airbags (Truck 2) (SUV 4)
• Seat Side Airbags (2)
• Backup Camera
• Pedestrian Identification
• Auto High Beam

More info

• https://www.slate.auto/en/faq
• https://www.slate.auto/api/contentful/download?entryId=qvGTtGysiBEP2JW8jM7GR

"Key Points

• Alphabet reported Thursday that Waymo, its autonomous vehicle unit, is now delivering more than 250,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in the U.S.
• That figure is up from 200,000 in February, before Waymo opened in Austin and expanded in the San Francisco Bay Area in March.
• Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said Waymo is building partnerships with ride-hailing app Uber, automakers and operations and maintenance businesses that tend to its vehicle fleets."

Another favorite pastime was digging a tunnel under his home; he attributed the secret of his success to "visits by elves" while he worked in the tunnel: "While I'm digging in the tunnel, the elves will often come to me with solutions to my problem."

Wikipedia cited a rather entertaining Time article as a citation for this.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/62370804

Archived link: https://archive.ph/Vjl1M

Here’s a nice little distraction from your workday: Head to Google, type in any made-up phrase, add the word “meaning,” and search. Behold! Google’s AI Overviews will not only confirm that your gibberish is a real saying, it will also tell you what it means and how it was derived.

This is genuinely fun, and you can find lots of examples on social media. In the world of AI Overviews, “a loose dog won't surf” is “a playful way of saying that something is not likely to happen or that something is not going to work out.” The invented phrase “wired is as wired does” is an idiom that means “someone's behavior or characteristics are a direct result of their inherent nature or ‘wiring,’ much like a computer's function is determined by its physical connections.”

It all sounds perfectly plausible, delivered with unwavering confidence. Google even provides reference links in some cases, giving the response an added sheen of authority. It’s also wrong, at least in the sense that the overview creates the impression that these are common phrases and not a bunch of random words thrown together. And while it’s silly that AI Overviews thinks “never throw a poodle at a pig” is a proverb with a biblical derivation, it’s also a tidy encapsulation of where generative AI still falls short.

Automakers and tech developers testing and deploying self-driving and advanced driver assistance features will no longer have to report as much detailed, public crash information to the federal government, according to a new framework released today by the US Department of Transportation.

https://archive.ph/wWwjG

Speaking to the BBC, she said: "I understand why there's so much focus on our trading relationship with the US but actually our trading relationship with Europe is arguably even more important, because they're our nearest neighbours and trading partners.

https://archive.ph/oxPY3

Fuck the stupid morons who defend Apple.

Imagine if Microsoft banned Windows users from installing the software they want on their computer.

Imagine if Microsoft required all software developers to give them 30% of their earning or Microsoft will ban them from Windows

Running bamboo is notoriously fast spreading and difficult to remove. What keeps its population balanced in the wild, and prevents it from crowding out the competition? I tried googling, but was inundated with gardening advice, horror stories, and assault / offensive gardening (some of the latter two presumably covering the same incident from both sides). My google-fu failed, I couldn't really find any info about natural population controls of running bamboo in the thicket of tall tales and gardening advice.