UK DWP to impose driving bans for unpaid benefit debts from October

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will gain new enforcement powers in October that allow courts to temporarily revoke driving licences of people who owe at least £1,000 in benefit debt and have the means to pay. The measures target debt on three benefits with high fraud rates – Universal Credit, Pension Credit and Employment and Support Allowance – and are intended as a last‑resort tool after other recovery options, such as direct deductions from bank accounts, have been exhausted.

Under the Labour government led by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Work and Pensions Minister for Transformation Andrew Western said the powers will protect taxpayers by clamping down on those who deliberately avoid repayment. Courts must be satisfied that the individual could afford to repay the debt and has willfully refused to do so. Safeguards include the ability to suspend a ban while repayment plans are followed and consideration of essential need for a licence. The new powers are part of the PAFER Act and aim to modernise the DWP’s debt‑recovery framework.