DWP's 'White Mail' AI reads benefit claimant correspondence without consent
The Department for Work and Pensions has been piloting an AI system called White Mail since 2023 to read and prioritize correspondence from benefit claimants without their knowledge or consent. Documents released under Freedom of Information show that the system processes sensitive personal data including health and financial information, and charities have raised concerns about the lack of transparency and accountability in how the system makes prioritization decisions.
What happened
The Department for Work and Pensions has been piloting an AI system called 'White Mail' since at least 2023 to read and prioritise correspondence from benefit applicants and claimants. According to documents released under Freedom of Information, an internal data protection impact assessment stated that letter writers 'do not need to know about their involvement in the initiative' and that consulting individuals about data processing is 'not necessary as these solutions will increase the efficiency of the processing'.
The system processes sensitive personal data contained in claimant correspondence, including national insurance numbers, dates of birth, addresses, telephone details, email addresses, benefit claim details, health information, bank account details, racial and sexual characteristics, and details of children including dates of birth and special needs. The data is encrypted before originals are deleted and held by the DWP and its cloud computing provider.
Reported impact
Charity Turn2us raised concerns that processing highly sensitive personal data including medical records and financial details without claimants' knowledge and consent is 'deeply troubling'. The charity noted that prioritising some cases inevitably deprioritises others, making it vital to understand how these decisions are made and ensure they are fair.
Index analysis
The system was not logged on the government's transparency register for central government AIs despite a ministerial mandate to do so. White Mail was described by the then welfare secretary Mel Stride in 2023 as enabling those most in need to be more quickly directed to relevant help.
Governance controls
Turn2us called for the DWP to publish data on the system's performance and introduce safeguards including regular audits and accessible appeals processes to protect vulnerable claimants, and emphasised that transparency and accountability must be at the heart of any AI system.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.