Hi,

I received a letter last week for a ' Local Compliance Telephone Interview'.

The call will take place in just over 2 weeks. The letter says the telephone interview has been arranged because your circumstances may have changed and we need to ensure your payments are correct. On the back it says i need my bank statements at hand and any savings or pensions (which i don't have!).

I rang the women who will be doing the interview to change my mobile number as it was wrong, i asked her what the interview was for as i had never heard of it. She said "its just to check your getting / on the correct benefits."

Since googling i have seen so many stories of the LCO being part of the fraud team, i haven't commited any fraud but its still worrying me as to why I have this interview!

I have had an issue with housing benefit that i have been overpaid (roughly £135) which isn't my fault it was my housing associations fault, could it be to do with this? It is sorted now though i went to sort it out last week.

I also rang income support to tell them about a part time course i will be doing and i asked what a local compliance interview was and he said its the fraud team!!

Sorry for rambling on.

Any advice to put my mind at ease would be great, seen as i have to wait just over 2 week!!!

Thankyou.

Hello there. Don't worry about this, it's unlikely to be a problem. Have a read around the forum and you'll see lots of threads on compliance. I think pretty much everyone has come back and said it was OK.

HB

Thankyou!

The women did say its to check im on the right benefits and getting what i should, so hopefully that's what it is!

I have read a lot of people say its to do with malicious calls though aswell.

I know someone else who has one on the same day, during the same timescale as me so hopefully its just a few reviews!

I hope so too.

If they thought you had done something untoward, it would be the fraud people contacting you, not compliance. I know it sounds like a scary word, but if you check out some threads here, as I said, I think they've all been good outcomes.

Type something like 'compliance interview' into the Search CAG box up this page, in the maroon strip for other threads.

HB

Hi,

I had my telephone local customer compliance interview yesterday, someone (i know exactly who) had reported that my boyfriend was staying in my home every night (not true!).

She asked me if i knew him which i said yes he is my boyfriend, but we only see each other on a weekend. Asked how long we had been together (7 month roughly) and if we had any plans for the future, which we don't yet we have far too much going on separately!

Told her i knew exactly who would have reported me, told her about the person, and she said "oh dear".

Anyway she obviously read everything out to me and updated the system, then asked if i was okay to 'sign' the statement which i agreed to because everything i said was true.

I asked her what happened about the allegation now and she said "nothing really, we just obviously have to do these checks when we get reports of allegations"

Thanked me for my time and that was that.

Am i being stupid in worrying more will come of it or is that usual procedure?

I suffer from depression and anxiety as it is and all this is tipping me over the edge

Any help at all will be appreciated.

Thanks x

Hello again. I've merged your old and new threads to keep the story together.

It's hard for us to say what the compliance lady will do, but to me what she said sounds encouraging. Putting it into context, she wasn't from the fraud section and it wasn't an interview in person.

I think you did well on the phone from the sound of it, you should be proud of that.

Hopefully people with more experience than me will be along to comment later.

HB

Thankyou!

I'm sick of everything being a waiting game, she didn't say it would be passed on just that nothing will really happen they just have a duty to follow up allegations.

x

If they had in any way believed the allegation in the first place, it would have been an interview in person with the fraud team so I would consider the fact that it was a telephone interview with compliance to indicate that they knew it was probably malicious and just needed to confirm it.

RMW is right.. that will be the end of it.