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Hi Michael

I'm not an expert on this, and your question is outside the scope of the forum. I did look up criminal injury payments, and as far as I can work out, you have a 52-week buffer with regard to it affecting means-tested benefits (which is what the CA told you) - but I can't find it on the government website to confirm.

BIS

I have had a letter today about a notice of compliance telephone interview I am very nervous about this it's about my partner's claim I am her appointee. Earlier this year my partner had a criminal injury payment I sought advice from citizens advice about it and they said as long as we spend it in the first year and can show how you spent it it will not affect your benefits which is what we did we did not spend on the cost of living we had a driveway fitted and purchased a caravan so my partner can visit her family in Scotland am I in trouble has the citizens advice given me bad advice

Hi olivoyl,

I think the salient feature as far as the DWP investigation is concerned is what you have told us ...." I wrote to UC explaining this and asked for more time to check my banking history, as I moved house long time ago and didn’t always update my address for accounts I thought were negligible."
So you have admitted your error and declared that there maybe other savings accounts.
The DWP have two separate investigating teams Compliance and CFIS ( otherwise known as the Fraud Team )
You will not be subject to a Fraud Investigation as you have not deliberately attempted to break the Benefit rules.
You may well though be asked to attend a Compliance interview at your local Jobcentre where the discussion will be about how much you owe the DWP after a Benefit adjustment and how you will repay it.
You may get a Civil Penalty charge which is about £50 though your caring for a severely disabled child could well be a mitigating factor.
Let me know how you get on.

David

Hi PG,

Leniency is one thing that the Tory government at the time did not want included in Benefits legislation. UC was designed to simplify and reduce Benefits generally. Hence where before if an overpayment was caused by official error the claimant on Legacy Benefits could apply to keep the payment, this was explicitly ruled out in UC. Furthermore if the UC claimant is late in reporting a change of circumstances the government has introduced fines called Civil Penalties.
You say you had a Financial Review. Was this a UC Enhanced review or a DWP Compliance Team review?

David

Hi xerox,

The DWP have a Compliance Team who check Benefits claims. But they don't check the claims where having savings/capital is not a material issue. I suppose you have informed HMRC of the work as they may expect some sort of notification for tax purposes. PIP don't need to be informed as long as there hasn't been a significant change in his health condition.
You could just put the £5000 as annual earnings as it's the profit figure that is required.
There is no harm in putting in the bank details.
As far as dates are concerned you could input today's date and a random date 3 years into the future.
If there is a notes section at the end of the form you could also write a brief explanation.

David

Hi tigerblue,

I cannot see why you should have to inform " the tax man " if you spend a few thousand pounds of your savings.

You will obviously have to inform the DWP if your total savings drop below the £6000 threshold. You will need to keep all receipts related to your expenditure just in case DWP Compliance interview you to make sure that it was reasonable expenditure and not " deprivation of capital ". Of course, Income Based ESA increases as savings over £6000 are run down.

David

Hi Gary,

The saga of the documents continues:

I replied to their request as per my journal:

"I am gathering the information for Paypal, Premium Bonds, Capital.com and National Lottery in the format the DWP requests and will upload them shortly. Although DWP hasn't requested the information my Steam gaming platform presents significant challenges as it doesn't have a download option and only shows one of my email addresses: REDACTED

I may have to take photos and print them out with my name and address manually added by myself with my signature. This item I include for full disclosure.

Please note that as far as I'm aware, Bitcoin and associated tokens are the digital equivalent of cash and are stored in a 'wallet' which has an 'address'.

The DWP can easily access my two wallets online with all the details:

(Addresses REDACTED)
However the best I can do with these is to add my name and address to a paper print out with my signature on them for verification.

Regards,"

After sending the documents I receive the following:

"Thank you for providing the documents we requested following your appointment. I have reviewed the documents. Unfortunately the documents you have uploaded do not show the following information-

be of the original document
be in focus with all text readable
show both incoming and outgoing transactions
show the start and end balances
show all 4 edges of the statement
show your name and address
show your sort code and account number.
be of the original document
be in focus with all text readable

I have set you another to-do to re-upload the documents. You may need to contact the companies directly to get the statements. Please can you complete the to-do by the due date REDACTED"

I have replied:

"I have done my best with regard to the provision of documents. As far as I'm aware all the items have been as complete as I can make them. Please will you let me know which of the numerous documents that I have provided do not meet the DWP's requirements.I am able to attend a local job centre for verification if necessary.

With regards to the crypto currencies, 'bitcoin' and DPR tokens, which are not worth much I will need physical access to a computer at the jobcentre so that an agent will be able to verify my access to these 'accounts'. Also in the case of DPR token I will need a direct Ethernet cable for the DPR token hardware wallet. The 'crypto' items are not bank accounts and are. as far as I'm aware, the digital equivalent of cash. Perhaps I shouldn't have declared them?

In any case I do not have any more than at the start of the review, at a possible extreme, £5000.- assets.

Please advise."

Going to be intersting to see what the next problem will be - I guess that the DWP are pushing for a Non-compliance excuse for suspending the UC benefit.

What do you, or other members, think of this?

Larry1234

Thank you for sharing, I will try and call Mind or CAB and get some advice.

Thank you for your advice Gary, I’ll record the call for my records and make some bullet point notes.

Hi DS901

At the compliance telephone interview;

1) make a recording of the interview but do not tell them you are recording it
2) speak slowly to give you time to think before you speak
3) If you do not know an answer just say you do not know, do not make up an answer
4) before the telephone call, make your self a bullet point list of facts that you can tick off as you go through the interview.
5) Have a glass of water handy so that you do not have a dry throat.
6) Sit in a comfortable seat at a table and make written notes.

Gary

Yes, I have the original letter from my former employee stating the compensation amount which I sent back in 2019. I was only able to work this situation out after Freefee’s clarification. My interview is on Tuesday, I don't think I can get legal advice before then. I take it they will rake me over the coals, I feel so hopeless.

Hi freefee

Yes, you can care for someone and claim PIP.

Gary

Hi DS901,

Do you have a copy of the letter you sent in 2019? This would help with proving you notified them as required. I had a fun time with them a few years ago when they had not acted on information I had provided. It all got sorted but I got welfare rights involved to help make my case they were at fault.

Gaddy

hi DS, i am not a mod on here, just a subscriber like yourself, my thoughts on this are based on lived experience i guess, first rule, do not panic, i am not in the same situation as you but i will give you my two pennyworth for what it is worth, i have been on benefits for over 20 years and to be honest at the start i just sent the information they wanted had the medical etc and assumed they had got everything right, i consider myself lucky that i have never been paid income related, means tested benefits, or i would have found myself in a lot of trouble, i did not really start to get to grips with the dwp until i found this site, at one stage many years into my benefits i wondered if support element supplement was means tested so i phoned them up and asked them, i was told it was classed as contribution based, i have savings and would have owed them thousands, i phoned 3 times, to get the same answer from 3 different people to make sure it was correct and i also asked for a statement of entitlement, i have a small pension which means anything over 85 quid a week is halved and taken off my esa, they got the deduction wrong one year, and i eventually noticed it, a few pence a week it was, even though i informed them of their mistake, one woman got shirty with me for not informing them earlier, it was there bloody mistake!, the letters they send are not always very to the point, so you can be living in blissful ignorance for a while, i have never had to deal with a compliance check so i cannot really help you there, except to say, if you can get advice beforehand, that seems to be the most sensible thing to do, i would ask why you did not claim pip, but i read you care for your mom, so not really sure if you can claim that whilst looking after someone else is possible, someone on here will know, your not paid for it, so will that make a difference? dunno, i would suggest a mod reads the whole thread and gives you more help, but i must repeat please do not panic, i am pretty sure many thousands of people or more go through similar things, good luck, just be honest and i am sure it will be sorted out, good luck, hard not to be paranoid in days like these, i am still learing things myself after all theses years

Thanks for your reply Freefee

This clears things up for me, I thought the £128.45 in April 2019 was just ESA Support Group excluding DIG. I thought they received my letter back in February 2019 and the subsequent letter was their response in March 2019 (looking at it wasn’t it was a different period, I NEED to be less scatter-brained. How effed am I?

sorry, the support component is £47.70 not 44, added together gives 138.20, i only know this because i have phoned them up myself a few times to confirm this is all means tested, and it can be googled

Hi freefee,

Yes the premiums are means tested. A lot of people get Conts Based ESA and also get the top up of Income Based.

David

my opinion is this, the most you can get on esa support group that is contribution based is £138.20, this includes the support component of £44.70 plus the £90.50 basic payment, which gives you £138.20, the disability premium for a single person is £20.85 which gives a total of £159.05, i would assume this is the issue as i believe it may be means tested

Hi DS901,

Hope it all goes well for you and let us know how you got on if you are happy to do so.

David

Yes, I called the officer before posting here, they just said have my bank statements ready. It looks like the Disability Income Guarantee was removed correctly back in 2019, when I informed them of a compensation sum that I’d be receiving from my former employment. So it’s just Contribution ESA Support Group (£128.45 in April 2019 currently £159.05) that I get which I assume is not means tested, so I can have savings over the £16000 threshold . So I just want to know what to expect, how to prepare because this isn’t helping my conditions.