Innvitation to office interview - help!

[mizunderstood]

Hi there, I received a letter from the Customer Compliance Section at Job Centre Plus today headed "Invitation to office interview" it goes on to say they need to see me in order to discuss the benefit they are currently paying me because a "query" has arisen and that "where there is doubt about whether conditions for entitlement are met" they can suspend my payments. The interview is scheduled for Tuesday and, quite frankly, I'm terrified as I have no idea what this could be about and I depend on that money to put food on the table for my daughter, not to mention I have a school uniform to buy this week.

 

To give you some background, I have been claiming Jobseekers Allowance since 10th July when I split with my partner. I had to get a crisis loan the week after applying for jobseekers as I couldn't get in touch with my partner to discuss maintenance etc and no-one in my family could help me any more financially as I had already borrowed from them the previous week after my partner left, assuming we would smooth things over. I eventually applied for benefit after hearing through the grapevine he was seeing someone else near where he works, but he hasn't confirmed this. I am now receiving £50 per week maintenance from my ex, finally having made contact with him. I am also now receiving Housing and Council Tax Benefit.

 

On my last signing day, Tuesday past, I informed my advisor that I had been accepted for a college course and would be signing off from Jobseekers on my next signing day as I would begin my college course the following day. I did stress, however, that I was still actively looking for work as I did not qualify for student funding and need a part time job to help pay the bills.

 

There was some confusion with my Housing and Council Tax benefit as my ex's name was still on the tenency agreement etc and I am still using my married name...I hadn't realised that I should have informed the council of his leaving but when I received a letter asking for his income details to work out benefit entitlement, I went to the council offices, informed them he no longer lived here and had my benefit instated and backdated to the date of my claim. I applied for Housing and Council Tax benefit along with my Jobseekers claim. I only actually moved into the council tenency at the beginning of June after several years of living with my parents, so wasn't familiar with their rules about who lives here etc. I think the stress of trying to live as a family in the home of another family (my teenage brothers lived there also) is what contributed to our breakup to be fair, but that's a whole other issue.

I have given the Job Centre my ex's phone number and work details, I don't know his address as he is vague with me about where he is staying leading me to believe he is living with someone as a couple, but I am unsure as he will not tell me and we only see eachother for the sake of our daughter. He has stayed over in my home with our daughter twice since we split, as he had holidays from his job and wanted to take our daughter out for the day, so I stayed over at my mothers house.

 

I'm so confused because a friend told me this looks like a benefit fraud investigation, which I don't understand. I'm upset and feel sick as now I do not know what to expect from the interview. I have never been on benefits, apart from when my daughter was small and my husband and I were apart for a year, meaning I was a single parent and claimed tax credits whilst working, so don't understand all the terminology etc. I just knew that I was entitled to benefits whilst I wasn't working and a single parent, so had to claim for my daughters sake. Now I seem to be having my benefit stopped because they have a query that I need to wait until Tuesday to find out about! My benefit should be paid on Friday and I was relying on it to buy my daughters school uniform. Now I will have to borrow yet more money from my parents, possibly claim another crisis loan and basically spiral into debt and give up my college course if I am unable to get there.

 

I also didn't realise I was entitled to claim Child Tax credits along with Jobseekers, only discovered this when I read something on the forums, so applied a week or so ago and have still yet to hear from them. As you can imagine, money is tight and I feel so hopeless. Any advice or information on what this interview could be about and whether they will suspend my benefit due on Friday until the meeting on Tuesday would be appreciated as no-one in my family received benefits or has any experience of this. Thanks for your time.

 

 

[ErikaPNP]

I'm afraid that we can't guess what it's about - you'll drive yourself crazy thinking about what it could be, when it could be the opposite of any guesses made. It could be any number of things. They may think your partner still lives there. They may think you're not actively seeking work, could be anything.

 

This is not a fraud investigation. Fraud is investigated by FIS. This is a compliance enquiry.

 

Compliance enquiries can be opened because someone has made a report but there is little evidence to suggest wrong doing, or because something doesn't quite add up in the information they hold about you, and are a manner of clearing things up quickly without a full Fraud investigation.

 

Your payments haven't been suspended unless the letter states so (it will state that they will not pay you benefit from x date if they are actually suspending payments) - but they have to inform you that suspension is a possibility in these cases, so for example if you didn't go on Tuesday, they could suspend benefit until you co-operated with them. These letters are template letters and they just add in your personal information.

 

Does the letter ask you to bring anything with you?

[mizunderstood]

Thank you for your reply. I'm bewildered, I just assumed it was routine as I've never claimed Jobseekers before, but when someone told me it looked like a fraud investigation, I assumed the worst and felt sick. The letter has a section for "Things I will need to see" and it's just a list of various proof of identification with instructions to bring one item. I moved address about a month before I made the claim, so my drivers license is still listed as my old address (my parents own the house and live there) and my passport has my maiden name on. I haven't got a utility bill, as such, but do have a letter from energy company addressed to me...would this be ok?

I'm signing off in a fortnight anyway, which my advisor knows about...wondering if maybe they think I'm not actively seeking work? But I fill in my diary religiously and look for jobs every day. Thanks again :0)

[edwardcullen]

hi,

I got a letter too and they want all bank/ investment statements from my claim. I saw them 2 years ago as I was doing mystery shopping and they queried- it was within the £20 a week but I was paid monthly. I never heard back but they did suspend benefits and then I got them reinstated a few weeks later.

Is is standard for them to ask for ALL statements? I got a back payment of housing benefit £7k and used that to pay a credit card off the day it was cleared. i have £4k in my childs acount- csa money goes there and it is used for child only.

I am worried as the last time they did stop and I hd a battle getting it reinstated.