JSA and spent money

[ally45]

Anyone help??

 

I withdrew £15000 from my bank account then another £15000 2 days later. I then closed the account. This was to pay loan sharks off for my son. I was then broke with no job so I went on Job Aeekers Allownce untill I can start work again. I have been told from a member of my family that the DWP will be informed of this and that I could be in trouble. Does anyone know if this could happen. I am worried sick and don't know what to do. I somehow don't think the loan sharks are going to give me a receipt!!!!

[cerberusalert]

Moved to Benefits forum

[WelshMam2009]

I think it would be relevant for means tested benefits such as Income Support, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.

 

Think Job seekers will be ok, it's just if you're receiving anything else that may cause you problems. If they believe that you disposed/deprived yourself of your capital in order to be able to claim benefits then they may treat your claim as if the money was still in the bank.

 

Are you receiving any other benefits Ally?

[ErikaPNP]

The DWP can treat it as if you still had the money, which could disentitle you to income based JSA. It's referred to as "deprivation of capital", and it can be applied even where the money was used to pay debt.

 

There is no cut and dry case in regard to this; it is down to the Decision Maker who will make a determination based upon the evidence available.

[ally45]

Hi Thanks for your reply. Do you know if the DWP can find out that I withdrew the money?

[MONX]

Again it will depend which type of Jobseekers Allowance you are on, if you are on the means tested (income based) JSA then capital over £6000.00 affects the amount of benefit you are entitled to and if you have £16000.00 or more then its deemed that you have too much capital to claim the income based JSA.

 

If you are claiming Contribution based JSA then the only things affecting this is an occupational pension and part time earnings. It is based on your national insurance contributions and lasts six months.

 

There is a department that matches people on benefit with payments of interest due to them in the tax year that they are claiming and it could be that until you withdrew the money you accrued some interest that they would be informed of, this being the case they would need to see all your statements in order to establish how much was withdrawn and a statement from yourself telling why you withdrew the money and how you disposed of it.

 

Eriika is right, if they deem it unreasonable for you to withdraw £300,000.00 from your capital and give it away they could consider it as deprivation of capital and then they would treat it as though you still have it but that is down to the decision maker and the evidence you provide to back up your case.

 

If you can find out which JSA you are getting it would be easier to judge if it will make any difference.

[ally45]

Thanks to everyone for your replies which were helpfull. I only had the £30.000 in bank for a week as it was a cheque from premium bonds so hopefully it may not have been detected unless anyone knows different???

[Aviva]

Are you already receiving JSA or have you applied?

 

If you have made an application they will want to see bank statements so will see the money was in your account and then withdrawn. They will want to know where it went and as obviously you don't have proof of the payment this will cause difficulties with your claim.

 

However, if you are already claiming then they may never find out. It appears although they can ask banks, etc for info they can only do this when they suspect fraud is being carried out. So if they have no reason to think you may have received extra money then they won't check. But you have to think about who knows you received the money, etc as they may report you for fraud.

[ally45]

The bank statements I gave them were from another bank account I have and they were satified with these, hence the decision that they said I am entitled to JSA and housing/council tax benefit. Only a couple of close friends know I had the bonds whom I trust. Just wasn't sure banks/NSA inform DWP of such things.

[ally45]

Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply, your replies have been very helpfull x

[ally45]

Hi Welshmam,

 

Yes I think that sounds right, they woulnd't be concerned the fact the cheque was from National Savings. Again thank you for you time,

 

Regards

 

Ally45