Jump to content


Notifying DWP about “windfall” change in circumstances, Help please.


Fantoma_2010
style="text-align: center;">  

Thread Locked

because no one has posted on it for the last 4497 days.

If you need to add something to this thread then

 

Please click the "Report " link

 

at the bottom of one of the posts.

 

If you want to post a new story then

Please

Start your own new thread

That way you will attract more attention to your story and get more visitors and more help 

 

Thanks

Recommended Posts

My situation is this; I am claiming Job Seekers Allowance (Income Based) & Housing Benefit (Council Tax only as I no longer have a mortgage), I have some credit card debts which have been frozen etc, now I also have 6k overdraft at its limit. Obviously I have no savings & I am broke. I am considering surrendering an Endowment policy which will give me just over 3k now.

I am doing this as a way of trying to reduce my overdraft so that, I don’t keep exceeding the limit which leaves bills unpaid (basically I’m living on my overdraft), also I don’t want to appear to be dishonest with the DWP and get into any bother with them as they say “you must tell us if there is any change in your circumstances”, the way they see things is black or white and the system cannot handle anything that is slightly unusual.

My point is, if I tell them that I am going to get this money (just over 3k) outlining the source of it and that it is going to be swallowed up by debt, how is that going to affect my job seekers allowance & benefit, my guess is that they will stop my benefit and I will probably have many forms to fill in etc be signed off and have to start all over again when the so called windfall has been used.

If I don’t tell them and later down the line they find out it will be viewed as fraud because I didn’t tell them (am I right?).

 

Sorry if it seems long winded but I don’t want to ask them at the Job Centre as I don’t trust them and they probably wont have a clue how to deal with this because the guidelines & questions they use will view this as too complex.

 

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi I think that if you could have the money paid directly into your account with the overdraft, then your circumstances would not have changed you would have no more money on that day than the previous day or the next just the size of your overdraft would change.

 

dpick

Link to post
Share on other sites

A thing to consider is that the bank may immediately decide to reduce the overdraft limit so they have 3k drop limit to 3k and while your overall debt is down the position with going over all the time remains the same, sorry I took cab advice and advised my bank about problems and they promptly grabbed every penny I had in any of their accounts so I am a bit careful about putting money into an account that in debt agreed or not

It may be possible to sell the endowment rather than surrender it i would hope that you get a bit more advice from more knowledgeable caggers before doing anything Good Luck

Link to post
Share on other sites

As long as you pay the money into a 'declared' bank account there should not be a problem, as stated, you can have upto £6000 without it affecting your benefits. If, however, you open a new account (which you have not declared) to put it in, maybe to avoid it being swallowed up by your overdraft, then you would have to declare it.

Link to post
Share on other sites

All good info & replies, thats the whole point in posting on this site.

 

Hessey50 I did look at selling it on but it cannot be sold (nobody wants to buy it) because it is unit linked also a good point about the bank moving goal posts.

I do have another account which I may use to pay it into to avoid it being swallowed up & further problems with bank reducing overdraft etc but, I'm not sure if they know about this account. I think they should know because I have been transparent with them from the outset, if they asked for info on all bank accounts at the point of making the claim then I would have told them but the doubt in my mind is that I dont remember this issue.

However I will be declaring it as I dont believe I am doing anything wrong, it's below the threshold anyway & I'm having to surrender it early to pay off debts, after reading many of the other horror stories on here I dont wnat to give them any excuse.

 

Will keep you posted.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I trust the other account is with a different bank as I found out to my cost they usually have an any account can be raided to cover debt on another account clause so if its the same bank and the money goes into a savings account they can promptly drop your limit and grab the money lovely little creatures

Link to post
Share on other sites

Good point Hessey, yes the other account is with another bank & that is where the payment is going as I want some control over how I distribute it. I suppose lovely little creatures is probably a pc term to use, they have you every which way & I'm being hammered in charges.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 Caggers

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Have we helped you ...?


×
×
  • Create New...