DWP Compliance interview *Update*

[Liyanne]

Hi all,

 

My sister attended her interview today with he DWP compliance officer. They wanted to see her because she negligently failed to inform them of her savings when she claimed benefits. I honestly think she's losing her mind because she keeps forgetting things and lands herself in trouble. She has zero understanding of the benefit rules (I'm no expert) and never knew how much savings or capital one is allowed to have before qualifying for benefits. She has worked her whole life apart from this 16 months.

 

Anyway, the DWP want full bank statements during the period she was on benefits, theres's definitely been an overpayment. She claimed for around 16 months.

 

She's now told me she will refuse to bring bank statements and will voluntarily offer to repay all the benefits she's received. Is this even possible ?

 

She is now working and just wants to get on with life. She's worried they will take her to court so she just want to repay everything rather than stress.

 

What do you guys think? Can she just offer to repay everything to make the DWP go away? She doesn't know the full amount but given her high rent , income support etc, I'm assuming it's around £17K.

 

The whole family is stressing about this as we are worried about her wellbeing. Many thanks for any imput.

[estellyn]

She should provide the statements - the DWP and LA have to do a calculation to work out the diminishing capital - what this is is where they virtually calculate how much the capital would have been reduced if she had to live on it and wasn't receiving the benefit.

 

What level ( roughly ) is her savings at? If it's anywhere near the £6000-£16000 mark, then the above calculation can make a big difference (by thousands) to the overpayment. She can then repay the correct amount of overpayment.

[bio]

If you want the DWP to go away quickly then play ball with them - ie, provide the statements. If you want things to drag out, let DWP get the statements themselves - which they can and will do, but this can take a longer time.

[Liyanne]

Thanks for responding, much appreciated.

 

I think her savings could possibly be about £8k. Is it normal practice for DWP to look into previous claimants who are no longer on benefits ? I can't help but worry she will be taken to court if she does not comply with requests. The sad thing is, she is convinced DWP will just close the case if she gives them a cheque covering the amount of all benefits she's ever received. She has already applied for a bank loan to cover this!

[Mr.P]

If her savings were (as an example) £8,000 for the entire period in question, then the overpayment would not amount to £17,000. The DWP (and L.A.) disregard the first £6,000 and then deduct £1 for every £250 above this - The overpayment would be £8 per week in the above example.

 

Provide the DWP with the information they request and allow them to do the calculations. While they are number crunching, contact the Local council (HB & CT departments) and advise that there has been an oversight regarding the savings and provide them with the same information that has been given to the DWP. The L.A. will use the same calculations as the DWP.

 

Until both sides have done their calculations, it seems foolish to take out a massive loan to repay an overpayment that in all probability is no where as large as your sister thinks. Plunging herself in to debt for what could be a (relatively) minor amount only stores up bigger problems in the future.

 

It is unlikely that the DWP will commence criminal proceedings as a result of a compliance interview. However, the L.A. may go down that route if they find out via the DWP.

 

 

In the meantime, If she is forgetting things and you suspect the problem may be getting worse, get her to go to the doctors - It could be early signs of any number of degenerative conditions, many of which can be managed if diagnosed early enough.

[estellyn]

If her savings are around £8000, then it's highly unlikely she'd have an O/P large enough to bother with prosecution, and if she was getting full income support then her HB won't be affected at all. So the actual overpayment once statements are provided will be less than £1000.

 

DWP are in fact far more likely to prosecute someone with a larger overpayment who does not co-operate, than someone with a small overpayment who co-operates fully - so by providing her bankstatements she greatly reduces the chance of prosecution, because she will be reducing the potential overpayment by providing the correct information. Not providing would suggest to the DWP that she has something to hide.

 

Also, repaying a large overpayment has no impact on whether or not a prosecution takes place.

[Liyanne]

Thank you all for the very useful advice. My sister is no longer on benefits so I hope things get sorted soon. She suffers from depression and I'm thinking of contacting MIND for

 

Is it true that DWP are more lenient on overpayments relating to previous claims rather than those that are flagged up whilst the claimant is still on benefits ?

[Mr.P]

(back of fag packet calculation) Assume 64 weeks of claiming. With £8,000 savings resulting in an overpayment of £8 per week. Total overpayment for the 16 month period = £512

 

Would the DWP launch a prosecution for such a trivial amount - Highly unlikely as the costs alone would outweigh any benefit and they have many more higher value cases to pursue.

[estellyn]

Of course if the sister refuses to give the statements, the FULL benefit for each week would become an overpayment, resulting in total O/P of thousands, and a much higher chance of prosecution.

 

and no, previous claims, repaying thousands, NONE of this affects the likelihood of prosecution - the biggest factors are the amount of overpayment, and the amount of co-operation - which is why it's very important she provides statements.

[Life-Goes-On]

I had a compliance officer visit as I had too must savings about 10K for a 6 month period. I played ball with them and supplied everything they wanted (EG bank statements) I was expecting an overpayment but not had contact from them since supplying the info, and that was over 2 1/2 years ago. So from personal experience let them have bank statements (if they want them that can get them anyway)

[Liyanne]

Thanks. Will definitely advise her. It's quite sad that her mental health is deteriorating at such a young age and I have to keep telling her what's best given the situation she's in.

[vinny47]

Thanks. Will definitely advise her. It's quite sad that her mental health is deteriorating at such a young age and I have to keep telling her what's best given the situation she's in.

Liyanne, your posts indicate that you trying to help your sister and that you have her best interest in your thoughts, if its unlikely that you sister mental health is going to improve you might want to discuss with your sister now about making you POA for her and her family its better a member of the family is POA rather than someone that the DWP / Court of Protection appoints there are many different levels of POA

http://www.sense.org.uk/content/managing-benefits-behalf-somebody-else

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/relationships_e/relationships_looking_after_people_e/managing_affairs_for_someone_else.htm#h_when_does_someone_lack_mental_capacity

[Liyanne]

Thank you all for the great advice.

 

Vinny - I have read the links about appointing POA, very useful, thank you.

 

My sister has now provided all the information that was asked of her such as bank statements etc to the compliance officer. What will happen next ?. She was advised the statements will be sent to the overpayment section and she will receive a letter stating how much she has to repay. Is this the usual process ?. Who decides what happens / outcome? She is still worried sick and is hardly eating or sleeping. She has even exceeded her anti depressant dosage on a number of occasions. She thinks the compliance officer is lying to her and will pass her case to fraud section rather than the overpayment section. I truly hope this situation is resolved, I feel so sorry for her

 

 

As always, your help is very much appreciated. Thank you.

[antone]

There is no particular reason to believe that the documents will be passed to the Fraud people. If the Fraud folks were interested in the case, they'd have wanted to conduct an Interview Under Caution so that they could potentially use the interview answers in court. This did not happen. Unless your sister confessed to some outrageous fraud as part of her Compliance interview, the documents will be passed to the Overpayment team as stated.

 

As noted by Mr P upthread, the overpayment is quite possibly a lot less than than £17k. If she only had £8000 in savings, that probably less than £1000 as an overpayment.

 

What you've described is a perfectly normal procedure when the Compliance officers do not think there has been any fraud. The decision on the overpayment will be made by the overpayments team.

[Liyanne]

Thank you Antone. Only 2 questions were asked at the interview: 1) did she have £8000 in her bank account when she claimed, YES. and 2) why did she not mention this ? She apologised for her ignorance and said she completely forgot and did not even think it was relevant. She was then asked to provide statements and told a letter will arrive from overpayments team soon. The interview lasted under 10 minutes.

 

She went to the law centre this week and asked if she should inform housing benefit regarding the compliance interview and also give her bank statements. She was advised not to contact HB as they would then start investigating her and more trouble will follow. She was advised that as she is no longer claiming any benefits ( she started work and cancelled all her benefit claims prior to compliance interview ), the HB section would not have much interest in her.

 

I can't help but worry. If there's a JSA overpayment, doesn't that also create a HB overpayment? I obviously don't want to advise her against a solicitor's advice but am confused. The solicitor even mentioned the case of a man he dealt with who had about a £10k overpayment of Income Support but was never contacted by housing benefits.

 

What do you guys think?. Thank you so much.

[estellyn]

Income support is a 'passported benefit' for housing benefit. as long as she would have been receiving some income support then her entitlement to housing benefit would remain. As she only had £8000 of savings (and I'm assuming no other capital or income) then there would be no point when she wouldn't be entitled to some income support and therefore would have maintained full hb entitlement the whole time. Therefore no hb overpayment.

[Liyanne]

Thank you estellyn. I really hope they send her the overpayment letter soon so that she can move on. She sits at home worrying to death about what the DWP will say bext.

 

Any idea how long it usually takes to hear back once compliance interview has taken place ?

[estellyn]

sorry it can be a while, weeks or even a few months.