That's why I asked about where the money went, the authority could have evidence of the money going into her bank account which would therefore suggest an undeclared income. Also, is someone else paying your rent just not allowed, especially if they are family or a person that could be considered to be your partner?

Been there, know how she is feeling it's horrible and nothing anyone can say can stop how bad she feels right now, it's the not knowing what will happen. It will all come down to how much they think she has been overpaid, they deduct overpayments from your benefits so she would have to 'top up' her rent in future. Did he pay the landlady direct, or did the money keep appearing in your friends account each month for her to pay the rent with? You may be able to look around and find out what your local authority do with these cases, for instance, in my case, my local authority automatically send any overpayments of £6000 to court, no consideration taken. I've seen that with some authorities the figure is higher and with some its lower. Your friend needs to get to a solicitor that deals with this sort of thing, she should be entitled to legal aid if she's on benefits and has no savings. If she can get a solicitor appointed they are able to speak with the authority and get all the information of what exactly they are investigating and your friend can then meet with the solicitor prior to the Interview and sort out what she is going to say and be semi prepared for all the questioning that will follow. Hugs to your friend, its a horrible time but she will survive it, I did, and I had to go to Court, I thought I wouldn't make it through but I did. My biggest worry was prison too, it's not in the public interest to send a single mother to prison, just keep reminding her of that fact.

DO NOT LET THEM IN, lock all doors and windows so no one can gain access without your permission. I've had a run in with a bailiff in the past and the last thing you want is to allow them access. Some other great people will be along to let you know what to do next but in the meantime I just want to make sure you don't try to enter into any sort of discussion with them and let them in.

Ditto, what liverbird said. I have a son with Autism and know only too well how we have struggled over the years. You are insulting with your blanket statements that just tell us all that you actually have no clue what you are talking about. Maybe your anger would be better focussed elsewhere.

They wrote more about the other guy that was in court at the same time as me, he was up for less money than me and got off worse than me, then they tagged me along underneath, stated the amount of money and the fact that I got a conditional discharge, they didn't go into huge detail, there were no journalists in court apparently they ring up and get the bare facts. I didn't realise I had done anything wrong, just when they put the evidence in front of you, you realise what a stupid mistake you made. Just this morning on the school run chatting to another mum I found out she too had been court over something similar, just remember you are not the only one. For both her and me the time between interview and court was six months but I know some areas are taking longer. You have the right to be upset, you did something by accident, you didn't do it on purpose, that's the catch, they make you feel like crap because they want to prove you did it on purpose, you have more than enough grounds to show that you did not do this on purpose, its a direct result of not being able to cope fully with life, that's all.

If you're considered mentally unfit to attend what happens? Do they delay until you're considered fit? I know how stressful all this is, I've been to an IUC and then ended up in court. I held my hands up from the beginning and admitted I shouldn't have had the money but I didn't withhold information on purpose. I ended up with a conditional discharge due to having been depressed since 2007 which is effectively when I stopped dealing with life other than my children and a degree I was studying for, I still have to pay back the overpayment of £8250 but I had no further fine or costs applied to me. Seems the magistrate took on board all my history and was very lenient with me. There's no reason why this couldn't happen for you too. At no point did any solicitor advise me to say 'no comment' at the interview, I would imagine doing so only makes the investigator more determined to take you to court! That asides, most LA's have a set figure that if the over payment goes beyond it a person automatically gets sent to court anyway, for instance my LA's amount is set at £6000. Different LA's have different guidelines it seems. I don't think there is anything anyone can say to you to ease your own worries, it is hell to go through, no doubt about it, but one thing to remember is that some of us have survived it, I personally made myself quite ill over it too, just last week my name was in the paper, I wanted to go into hiding. I didn't, I told my children of 9 and 15 myself so no one could surprise them with the news, my family have all been supportive and just upset that they didn't realise how bad I have been feeling since 2007. It seems to me that the benefits agencies and councils want to make our lives as miserable as possible, so how about we don't actually allow them to do it. We've both made a silly mistake involving money, that's it, we've not murdered or hurt anyone on purpose, beating ourselves up in this way is no good for anyone. The one thought that kept me going was that I haven't murdered anyone, plenty of others have done far worse than me and whilst I might be gossiped about for a week or so by next week it will be forgotten. Try to stop worrying, don't let this make you even more ill, it's not worth it. ((hugs))

Currently living in Private Rented accommodation, initially when I moved in British Gas never sent me a bill. I kept chasing them and I think I recall some problem with my landlord not having told them he'd moved out and him finalising his final bill. Anyway quite some time later they did sort it all out and issued me with a bill of around a thousand pounds. There was no way I could find that sort of money so I agreed to have a pre-payment meter installed which has been deducting money each week for the debt. A little while back British Gas rang me and wanted me to up the repayment amount from £5 to £10, I told them there was no way I could do so as I was struggling with the £5 repayment amount each week. Now they've sent me a letter telling me to call a number and apply for a claim pack and I may possibly receive some sort of grant to pay back the arrears and get them cleared down by new year. Whilst this sounds wonderful, why would they do such a thing and just wondering if there's a catch somewhere? Also, I switched to British Gas for my electricity about a year or so ago, I've just had a bill that states my pre-payment electric meter is on the standard tariff, yet when I just looked at my meter it appears that it is running on Economy 7 settings! I have nothing here that runs on Economy 7! I'm guessing this meter has always run this way, the previous owner before my landlord installed the gas central heating and hot water system so not even my landlord ran anything with Economy 7. Annoyed with myself that I didn't think to check sooner, been living here for at least five years!

Oh my word!! You need to make sure you get evidence you were in A and E, I bet the court will insist on it. Hopefully they have stood down the warrant. Take it easy and get yourself better, make sure you get a doctors letter explaining what happened, was this brought on by all the stress? Would be good if the doctor could spell that out in the letter too. I hope you are better soon, thinking of you xx

Yes, this happened for me, met my solicitor at the place of the IUC an hour before the Interview, she had already had a meeting with the investigators and got the information from them on what it was all about.

I had a solicitor attend my IUC and that was on Legal Aid. I found that the CAB didn't know what to suggest and didn't want to get involved at all, just sent me off to look for a solicitors window that advertised Legal Aid!

Write down the amount of care your son takes and what you've said here, take it with you tomorrow. I think there are duty solicitors at court?? I'm not at all sure about that though. But if there are hand all your notes over, if you write it down tonight it's all there for tomorrow without you trying to tell them everything in an emotional state tomorrow. Get to court early to prepare. Can you take someone with you for support? Sadly, they are making examples of benefit fraud cases, pity they are picking out people who generally just got in a mess rather than more of the ones that are deliberately milking the system. I think there is a threshold amount for who they take to court too, no questions asked if you go over that limit then you're in court. I went to court a couple of weeks ago for a £8250 overpayment, I pleaded guilty, I didn't do it knowingly but yes I could see that I should have given details of student loans and therefore I had received money when I shouldn't have. My circumstances were put forward and I was very lucky to get a 2 year conditional discharge. Take your son with you, let the magistrates see what you have to deal with every day, they're human and hopefully they will be lenient once you explain how your life is. Good luck will be thinking of you xx

My LA would allow lala on the list if she's resided in this area the required amount of time etc, the calculator places a single person in your sort of situation as a band C candidate, so not high priority, but they would put you on the housing list and to be honest I have no idea how long the wait would be but I do note there are 2135 applicants in band c at present, 88 properties were available in the last three months and 19 band C people got them. Has your LA got a website like mine where you can use a calculator to see if you would be eligible?

abc has some good advice in her post, please get back on those tablets, I know it's a Saturday but I hope your surgery is open, even if only open for emergencies this is an emergency, you need to get back on them.

Have you actually been to the council and sat and waited to see someone? I can't see how the Council can make decisions on whether they deem you 'ill', have they seen a Doctors letter ? Do you attend any counselling? Do you get any support from the Mental Health team? Have you told your Doctor what is going on so they can they refer you to other medical practitioners to help you?

hello lala, may I ask you why you've stopped taking your anti-depressants? Is it the case that you ran out and forgot to get a repeat prescription? Is there any way you can talk to your Doctor this morning? You really need to get back on them to help you through this hunny. Hopefully someone in the know will be on soon.

My case was scheduled for 11.30, and I was told to be at Court for 10am to see my solicitor. I turned up on time and then the court failed to notify my solicitor I was there, it was all a bit messy at first! Then the solicitor saw me in a side room, she checked up on all the facts and prepared the defence. She said that the courts were running early and wanted to see us as soon as possible. At a guess the whole thing of speaking to my solicitor and then immediately being called into the Courtroom with the hearing took about an hour in total. I don't know how the system works really, they seem to have several people in one court room on charges at a time. The list I saw on the wall for my room stated that at 10.45, 10 people were up before the magistrates, then at my time of 11.30 there were two names, mine and another chap. On the morning when I saw my solicitor she explained that my charge had been changed anyway from a 111(1a) to a 112, which meant little to me the state I was in, I think she mentioned the words 'down graded' but I'm not sure. I'm not sure if they bunch people altogether on the same charge or not, but be prepared to have to sit through other peoples. Luckily for me I was first up and the other guy had to sit through mine. Once I went into the court room I was told to enter the door to go into the dock, a glass room, so be prepared to feel like a really dangerous criminal. The door was locked and I couldn't get in!! I wasn't sure at this point whether to laugh or cry! Anyway the magistrate told me to stay where I was and then when they'd finished the first part of the proceedings I was allowed to sit in front the dock. The prosecution put forward their ramblings, there were three of them so be prepared for that too, although only one spoke. Then my solicitor put forward the defence. I pleaded guilty from the outset, even back in the IUC, I pleaded that I accepted that I had received an over payment but I hadn't done it deliberately, ie I didn't intentionally set out to receive more benefits than I should have it was illness that caused me to become unable to cope with day to day life. Once my solicitor had thoroughly outlined all that happened to me the three magistrates shuffled lots of bits of paper around holding them up to one another and nodding and then they passed sentence. I don't mean to upset you with any of the above, just to forewarn you of what happens, forewarned is forearmed and all that! I had no clue what to expect on the day at all. When the guy that was after me came into the courtroom we were already started and I spotted him coming in with a lady who was probably his wife but I went into an almost melt down thinking it was the press lol And no, not all the details were in the paper, just the amount overpaid and the outcome. Hope I've not worried you any further, I'd hate to do that, I remember well the awful impending doom in the weeks before hand, it's hell and I'd not wish it on anyone. Be strong, hugs and good luck to you xx

In the court yes,the solicitor can only say what information you give obviously. I find the whole situation so difficult to portray without being in floods of tears, so I sat and wrote seven pages for her to read, she did so, clarified points of it and then picked out what to use in court. It was harrowing to sit and listen to the facts I had told her, like re-living a bad nightmare for me. She gave in-depth detail on me being dumped by the roadside at 31 weeks pregnant, the outcome of which was eclampsia one week later and an emergency ceasarian to save the baby, both of us were seriously ill. She went through the years of our marriage pointing out things that happened, how he verbally and emotionally abused me for years. When I plucked up the courage to leave this man and divorce him I thought that was it. She outlined all the times he's been to social services to report me, all the times he's verbally attacked me, his children and members of my family since the divorce. It's this continued harassment of me and me not dealing with how I was feeling that's got me in this mess. Two years after the divorce I had a breakdown and part of me switched off, he still is trying to control and abuse from beyond divorce now and this seemed to anger the magistrate along with the fact I am still physically scared of him. Are you waiting to go to Court?

A local paper that comes out once a week, not been out much to see anyone yet, got all three kids poorly with a stomach bug. Chances are not many read it, but on the flip side, chances are many more read it than I realise, who knows hey.

It's in there, apparently they don't go to the court but they just ring up and get a round up of all that happened. So far we'd kept this from my elderly Mum, I've spent the morning on the phone to her telling her what happened.

Thank you everyone. Still feeling like utter crap and there's a good chance it could be in the local paper tomorrow I was aware that they were taking money from my housing benefit well before the situation got to court. They've been deducting £10 per week. I have had a letter today stating that: There will be an ongoing deduction of £17.75 against the invoices listed below. The deductions will be from your normal payments starting with your payment due on or around 15th October 2012 until the overpayment is recovered. Invoice - £181.70 Invoice - £1039.39 THIS IS BECAUSE YOU WERE SUCCESSFULLY PROSECUTED FOR BENEFIT FRAUD ON 28.09.12 I'm already struggling to top up the £100 a month now for the rent with them just deducting the £10 per week! I fail to see why they can suddenly up the payments because of a prosecution, it's not like I haven't been paying it back already.

I know how horrible this feels believe me. I was almost in the same situation myself a few months ago from also not being able to cope with the bare minimum of life. Can you go through your post, have you still got it, just looking at the envelopes should give you a good idea of whether anything contains a parking charge notice, you'll need to open everything from any council. If you can find the council you can start to deal with the paperwork needed to reverse this. In my situation, every time I got the money together by borrowing from friends and family, I would then call the bailiff firm to make payment, they blocked me every which way they could in order to fit in another visit to charge me more when I did speak to someone to say I want to pay up x amount they would say 'oh sorry, you've had another visit, the charges have gone up' taking the money owed above and beyond what I'd just scraped together. By my experience the more you make contact with them the more they put pressure on you. Don't answer any calls from them or call them? Have you not had them visit your house and leave their calling cards? They don't use envelopes but I thought they need to have left notices with you before they just clamp your car ?? or have I got that wrong. I'm not an expert but just someone who was already depressed and was left wailing in a ball on the floor after their bullying of me. Take a deep breath, have you got a friend who can help support you through this, whilst you are panicking they are able to see straight and push you in the right directions to take action.

Cool, guessing you were doing that as I was reading it. My jaw lol

Ok, next time I'll hit report to get it to the mods quicker then. I'm a mod myself on another forum and know how hard it is to keep checking everything 24 hours a day.

ummm, are you allowed to name names on here?

Congratulations. Get some rest whilst you can. How's the woman that did all the hard work though?