Subject: Concerns about possible DWP surveillance – seeking advice and personal

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for advice from members who have knowledge or personal experience of DWP surveillance and investigations. I'm also particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has experienced something similar.

I live with Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, Anxiety, Depression and I claim ESA Support Group since 2019 without hearing anything from the DWP (no requests for health reassessment), PIP Enhanced daily and standard mobility (also since 2019 with only paper based assessment, I never had a face to face or phone assessment for PIP ever and this was extended from 2022 to 2026 but recently I found out through the Gov.log in app that my PIP was extended until 2029) and Universal Credit (LWCRA) with Housing benefit element since 2023.

Over the last two months, in a new flat and in a new part of the country, I've become increasingly concerned that I might be under surveillance by the DWP, potentially involving undercover investigators. I appreciate that I cannot establish whether there is any connection to the DWP, but several incidents have left me feeling uncomfortable and worried.

I'd like to explain some of the things I've experienced.

Experiences in London

During a recent visit to London, I repeatedly had the feeling that I was being followed over several days.

One particular incident happened at approximately 23:30 in the evening. I noticed a car which appeared to park abruptly when the driver saw me. This was a quiet street. The passenger appeared to take a photograph of me. I found the incident particularly strange and unsettling.

On another occasion, I noticed a man at a bus stop near my home. He started coughing and then started a conversation with me, he mentioned twice that he had been drinking and asked me some questions that I can't remember now. We had a brief conversation, during which he fist-bumped me twice. The interaction struck me as unusual, and I was left wondering whether there was any significance to it. I didn't think much of this interaction at the time because this happened a few days before my trip to London and I only noticed the start of suspicious activity in London. The twice fist bumping made me think if this was a signal to someone else, that was near watching us, to confirm that I was the person they were watching/looking for. I only moved to this new part of the country 3 months ago. There are only 2 bus services on my street and both buses arrived at the same time and I got into one of the buses and I noticed that this man didn't get on either buses.

There were also other occasions when I noticed people appearing in otherwise quiet streets, familiar cars repeatedly appearing, individuals seemingly watching me or just staring at their phones in a strange way as they walked by, like they were watching me but avoiding looking at me in the eyes and people walking unusually close to me. Some of them would stare at me. It was quite bizarre, it looked like these people needed to get as close as possible to me and I can only guess, maybe to have a good look at my face so they might be able to recognise me later on photos that the DWP might have (I did have 2 UC simple financial reviews in 2024 and 2025 when I was asked to send them a photo of me showing ID next to my face).

On another occasion in the same place I visit in London but this was even before my last trip to London last September (maybe August), I had been shopping with my friend and when we got back to his flat I got out of my friend's car, and a man approached me and started asking questions about moving into nearby flats.

He asked me what the area was like, if it was safe, things like that. I immediately said, I don't live here and my friend who lives there, continued to talk to this man and I left them both talking and I went inside my friend's flat. This man, like other people I observed, seemed to appear "out of nowhere". I opened the passenger's car door and there he was. Like he was targeting me. I can only guess the reason why these 2 men (the man asking about the neighbourhood and the other man outside my home that started coughing at the bus stop) was a possible test to see how I would react to them as they started a conversation with me. Because of ASD, ADHD and anxiety, I struggle talking to people and avoid talking to people a lot. In my previous address where I lived for over 3 years, I never went to my GP's surgery and I only had about 2 phone call appointments with different 2 different GPS so if the DWP got in touch with that surgery to ask about my health the GP/surgery would not be able to say much about my health conditions/difficulties because they didn't know me and this made me wonder if these strange interactions were a test to see how I would react to being talked to by DWP undercover agents. Like a cognitive test.

I can't give details of all weird encounters I experienced as this post would be too long but I was in London for a week and during this time I noticed about 15 weird encounters that happened sometimes once a day and sometimes twice a day.

I do suffer from great anxiety and I don't go out much so I was wondering if they wanted to film me/take photos of me while out to perhaps later challenge my health statements saying something like, you say you don't go out much but you spend a week in London going out every day. I don't live in London but once every 3 months or so, I go there to visit my friend and I spend a week there.

What I've noticed since returning home

On the day I returned home from London, I noticed there was a dark large van parked right outside my building. I was quite alarmed by this and I only glanced at the driver who had that same "military/undercover police look". It was like they were there waiting for me to get home from London to confirm where I lived. This was around 20.30 in the evening and as soon as I got into my flat, I kept looking very discreetly out of my bedroom window to see what they were doing. I couldn't see them well because of curtains in the way but I did see that they both kept looking at some device, probably phones but I couldn't tell what they were but I did see briefly and not very clearly, that the driver was looking at photos of single individuals. I can't say if any of these photos were of me but I seemed to be able to see a photo of a man, and this was man just walking somewhere completely unaware that he had being photographed. This van stayed outside my flat for about 20 mins before leaving. Afterwards, I started to think, hang on a minute, I think i saw this van before and it was on an occasion after I had gone for a walk around the block for a cigarette and when I reached my flat i noticed the van (it was in the evening so dark) and because I try to avoid neighbours, seeing this van annoyed me and I thought, who are these people/what are they doing there? (I saw people inside the van). This evening was before my trip to London when I started to see the weird behaviour and later on i thought that this could have been the same van.

There is also a car that has been parked outside my home for nearly two months. As far as I can tell, it hasn't moved during that time and it's parked very close to my building's front door so a hidden camera in this car would be able to film everyone leaving or coming into the building. It's a nice new SUV type, like a quashquai.

I've also increasingly felt that when I leave my home, people seem to be following me or appearing in places where I wouldn't normally expect to encounter them. It's like, I go out and the first 5 to 10 mins I don't see anyone (quiet streets) but after 10 mins or so, it's like somebody hit a beehive and all these bees came out. Some of these times, I just went round the block to have a cigarrete and suddenly all these people and cars are around me and keep in mind that this can be late at night around 23.30 and 00.30 and these people look completely out of place. Some are in their 20's but some older and some of the men look like military type, like undercover police and these men were a bit older.

I realise that individual incidents might have perfectly innocent explanations, but when several unusual experiences occur, it's difficult not to become concerned.

What I'd like advice about

Under what circumstances does the DWP decide to investigate or conduct surveillance on a benefit claimant?

Does the DWP employ undercover investigators who observe claimants in public or near their homes?

Do investigators use unmarked vehicles, photographs or video recordings?

How long can surveillance operations last?

Are claimants normally informed if surveillance has taken place?

Has anyone here personally experienced DWP surveillance or an investigation? What happened in your circumstances?

What would you recommend someone do if they have concerns about possible surveillance but have no confirmation that an investigation is taking place?

In my last flat, I had been targeted by my downstairs neighbour (as many autistic people are) and he started harassing me for months and after many complaints I made to the Housing Association, I felt I had no option but to move from there and this is what I did with great psychological, physical and financial difficulty and I suspect this neighbour may have lied and informed the DWP that I was committing benefit fraud.

Towards the end of September 2026 I made 3 different requests to the DWP for a Right of Access request for information that they hold on me. I only received the ESA so far and I'm still waiting for the PIP and UC ones. I had some problems with the Universal Credit claim, where I failed to inform them that my bank account balance went over £6000 in may 2023 after I received a car accident compensation claim. I got in touch with Citizens Advice around September 2025 (when I had my UC financial review) and Citizens Advice helped and said I should explain on my UC journal that I wasn't aware in 2023 of the £6000 rule and that my bank balance had gone over £6000 for about 2 months and by only about £200. I wonder if this could be another possible cause for the investigation.

I'm in my 50's and I don't have family and only 2 friends and this whole episode I'm going through is so damaging to my mental health. I haven't been able to leave my flat at all for 3 weeks, not even to put the rubbish out and I have 4 full black bin liners and amazon boxes in my bath because I feel violated that the car outside might be filming me. I buy food online from sainsbury's so I don't go out for grocery shopping.

I sent emails to 5 Law firms that are supposed to deal with DWP problems and nobody got in touch back. I contacted 4 charities, Age UK, Diverse Abilities, Swan Advocay and they said they could not help. I had a conversation from someone from Citizens advice this morning and I also believe I may need to inform the DWP of my new diagnosis of ADHD (from 2025) so I do need benefits advice. maybe inform the DWP of change of circumstances so Citizens advice is going to help me with this side of the problem but when I explained about the "surveillance" problem to Age UK, the lady was dismissive and said I should go seek mental health help.
The lady from Citizens advice did listen to my concerns more and she was helpful but in the end she also said, I should seek medical help for my mental health.

I know I could be wrong about the surveillance theory and I wish I was but I "feel" within me that something is going on. I haven't imagined these weird occurrences and everybody I told this to made me feel like I'm completely crazy. Even my ex-partner of 10 years who happened to be a manager for a Citizens Advice branch quite some time ago said that I'm being delusional and should seek medical help.

I was planning on writing a strong letter to the DWP telling them that I am aware of their surveillance and this is causing me great distress (I suffer from suicidal ideation and have had attempts in the past) and I want them to either to go ahead and try to prosecute me or to stop this surveillance/harassment but the lady from Citizens Advice that I spoke with earlier said I should not contact the DWP as they could just stop my benefits and probably continue with the investigation/surveillance so for now I will wait for the benefits advice appointment and send all the latest information I have and hope they would back off. I've been in touch with the council and I'm on the Autism Service waiting list for a support worker. I have a written referral form from my new GP/Surgery where she says she is concerned about my mental health and my suicidal thoughts/ideation. There is a letter from the old surgery, that I asked them to write so I could give to the old Housing Association regarding the harassment from the old neighbour and how this was affecting my mental health and the new letter of ADHD diagnosis that I haven't inform the DWP of yet so I plan to send all these new documents to the DWP when I have my appointment with someone from Citizens advice but I was told this appointment might not happen for one month.

I'm not looking to obstruct any investigation or do anything inappropriate. I simply want to understand how the DWP operates, what my rights are and how best to deal with these concerns.

I'd particularly appreciate responses from people with genuine first-hand experience or knowledge of DWP investigations.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.