Wrote a book and now Customer Compliance Interview.

[DEV1L79]

Hi all,

 

I wrote a book last year and it was picked up by a publisher and was published in February of this year 2014 and has been doing pretty well, it is available worldwide. I run a Facebook page which went crazy popular and it has now got over 100,000 likes. I was approached by a publisher to write a book on the subject of Wicca which I did.

 

I have been on benefits since being made redundant last March 2013. When my book was published I had a case worker who I saw regularly to help me get back into work and I asked her about the book and what I need to do and she said I shouldn't worry it is more a case of paying tax on it at the end of the year as long as my savings or earnings don't go past £6000. Well the book hasn't made £6000 yet I get a monthly payment from the publishers for royalties of the sales and e-book sales, it started out as about £600 but has now whittled down to about £250 a month. I am also on a work program called A4E which everyone knows about the book I even took a signed copy in for one of the advisers as she was interested in Wicca. I have always been totally open about the book with both the dole and A4E. I often told the person signing me on I had a book and they would say 'Oh good for you I will look it up' and nothing more said.

 

Now I have been sent a Customer Compliance Interview letter and it has got me a bit worried.

 

Also I have lived with a guy for about 20 years, just a joint tenant he is one of my oldest friends and neither can afford a place of our own, so we share. It has been brought up time and time again if we are living together as partners and after house visits they have been satisfied we are not partners. I am gay and he is straight. But he does not have a bank account so gets his wages or benefits or whatever money put into my account as it makes it easier because the rent and most house hold bills are paid direct debit from my account.

 

I am worried as the Customer Compliance wants to see my bank statements that it will bring up the old are you living together as partners and especially with him using my bank account they may not believe we are not partners.

 

I am very worried over this whole thing and don't know where I stand legally. Can I just not go to the interview and sign off if I can find a job quickly?

Edited September 24, 2014 by Andyorch
Book title removed/Facebook removed

[Mr.P]

Two points spring to mind:

 

1. Royalty payments would (could?) be regarded as "income" and need to be declared - Not familiar with DWP rules on this sort of thing, but even £250 per month is a significant amount and would affect the amount of benefits you would be entitled to.
   
2. Your friend should really have his own bank account even if it only for the purpose of distancing himself financially from you - It also helps you to defend against a claim that you are living together as partners.
   

[antone]

Yes - royalty payments are likely to be classed as self-employed income and do need to be declared. I realise that you've mentioned the book to JCP advisers but, to be frank, that isn't enough. I bet they have lots of people who say "I've written a book" but very few will be as successful as you have been in that endeavour - the adviser would barely give it a second thought. It is your responsibility to declare any income you receive.

[DEV1L79]

I did ask what i needed to do I asked a few benefits people and the people who i signed on with and they just shrugged it off, I was never given any advice who else could I have asked about it?

[antone]

I did ask what i needed to do I asked a few benefits people and the people who i signed on with and they just shrugged it off, I was never given any advice who else could I have asked about it?

 

The CAB can be quite good about this sort of thing. But if you have any income at all from any source, your safest bet would be to declare it in writing to the office that pays your benefits (that is, not your local JC but the processing centre). You can declare income at the JC as well, but make sure it's clear to them that this is what you're doing - say to the adviser in so many words "I have some income I need to declare. Please could I sign the appropriate form?"

[neword]

Your main problem is that you have received royalties for the book and have not declared the money.

You cannot hide behind the I told you about it as a lot of advisor's very easily forget what you say

and you get them saying you never mentioned it. There is probably very little information on their computers

(if any) as a lot of advisor's tend to not make important notes regarding this sort of thing as they want

an easy life in some cases and not putting info onto systems is one thing that happens.

 

I have had numerous problems with advisory staff concerning telling them about things and them not

making notes. I started to put a voice recorder down on the advisors desk after one incidence and from

that day on I never had another problem with their "well you did not tell us" arguments if anything

cropped up.

 

Nowadays, dealing with advisor's is a bit of a mine field and you have to protest yourself so

record or get written evidence, give then written information about anything like this royalties and

get the advisor to sign a copy for yourself.

 

They are to eager to give sanctions nowadays and not putting info onto their systems is one

way that they can get you if anything crops up and you cannot support your argument with

evidence.

 

Rule of thumb.

 

Protect your back as they will surely shoot you down if they get a chance.

[antone]

Your main problem is that you have received royalties for the book and have not declared the money.

You cannot hide behind the I told you about it as a lot of advisor's very easily forget what you say

and you get them saying you never mentioned it. There is probably very little information on their computers

(if any) as a lot of advisor's tend to not make important notes regarding this sort of thing as they want

an easy life in some cases and not putting info onto systems is one thing that happens.

 

I have had numerous problems with advisory staff concerning telling them about things and them not

making notes. I started to put a voice recorder down on the advisors desk after one incidence and from

that day on I never had another problem with their "well you did not tell us" arguments if anything

cropped up.

 

Nowadays, dealing with advisor's is a bit of a mine field and you have to protest yourself so

record or get written evidence, give then written information about anything like this royalties and

get the advisor to sign a copy for yourself.

 

They are to eager to give sanctions nowadays and not putting info onto their systems is one

way that they can get you if anything crops up and you cannot support your argument with

evidence.

 

Rule of thumb.

 

Protect your back as they will surely shoot you down if they get a chance.

 

Look, I'm all in favour of offering advice and helping folks out without judgement, but as I pointed out, you can't simply approach an an adviser and say "Hey, I wrote a book!" You need to say "Hey, I wrote a book and the royalties are £600 per month. What should I do about that?"

 

In this case, it isn't just because advisers are trying to meet sanction targets - it is more that is it is not acceptable to earn £600 per month without declaring it to the DWP. OP has failed to declare income. The declaration one signs when claiming benefits states that the claimant will declare changes of circumstances.

 

On the plus side for the OP, the fact that the Compliance people are dealing with this suggests that they're not interested in making a fraud case out of it.

[DEV1L79]

Look, I'm all in favour of offering advice and helping folks out without judgement, but as I pointed out, you can't simply approach an an adviser and say "Hey, I wrote a book!" You need to say "Hey, I wrote a book and the royalties are £600 per month. What should I do about that?"

 

In this case, it isn't just because advisers are trying to meet sanction targets - it is more that is it is not acceptable to earn £600 per month without declaring it to the DWP. OP has failed to declare income. The declaration one signs when claiming benefits states that the claimant will declare changes of circumstances.

 

On the plus side for the OP, the fact that the Compliance people are dealing with this suggests that they're not interested in making a fraud case out of it.

 

I wasn't sure if I needed to declare how much to them, I know lots of people who sell their goods, I had a friend who sold her iphone on Amazon for £500 for her rent and she didn't need to declare that. I know people with savings that don't need to declare unless they are over a certain amount. I had no clue at first how much the book would make. I did tell people I had a book.

 

I have no problem paying the money back I owe, I don't even mind losing my benefits, what I am most worried about is if this is a criminal case or even fraud and can or will they bring charges. Also if I signed off can I avoid the meeting altogether?

[jasta11]

As Antone says, the fact it's a Compliance meeting would suggest it's not immediately too serious - I'd imagine they're primarily interested in knowing exactly what money is coming in, in case you've become the second J K Rowling and are lining up film deals They do like to be officially informed of any income; it's all part of the process. In the event of any money having to be paid back, I can't see how they could treat it as intentional fraud as you've openly told so many people about it and haven't hidden anything. It's the calculating, deliberate fraudsters they're after.

 

Still worth doing as Neword suggests and recording all future dealings with the JC & DWP, never know when it will come in handy.

[SabreSheep]

1) Book thing.

 

You need to take to that meeting every bit of paperwork showing what you received. Being open and honest will reduce the chance of this becoming criminal. Best case scenario is they calculate the overpayment and make arrangements for you to pay it back.

 

2) Shared account and partner issues. When dealing with 1) they will also like to see your financial statements which is going to make 2) a trickier deal. You need to have access to paperwork showing that you have already been declared non partners. HOWEVER this is going to be a tricky situation.

 

You will probably need ALL his payslips to prove the money is his. The biggest problem is that having a shared bank account as an only bank account is a big indicator of being a couple. Remember sexuality aside a civil partnership is between to of the same Gender and can include co-habiting people. EG Sisters living long term together are ellegable for civil partner status. So Sexuality is not exactly going to be a defense here on its own.

 

You say Joint tenancy. As long as you have only stated you are paying half the rent in your claims that is helpful.

 

Also be advised that if he is working when he shouldn't this is going to be exposed and any wrongdoing is linked to you via your account.

 

I recommend he gets a basic account set up asap and you refuse to allow that arrangement to continue.

 

Finally, this is messy. You will need some sort of qualified help here to untangle this. Take all the relevant paperwork you can think of to CAB and for god sake be truthful to both CAB and that compliance meeting or things will get worse.

[neword]

The benefit agencies are only interested in the "profit" you make from your book sales (royalties) as

this was created by you. What you have to do here is have paperwork which shows the total costs that creating

that book cost you and this can be offset against any overpayment that may have happened.

 

As to selling something that you "own" and have purchased with your own money then that should not

make any difference to your friends at all. It's if you made a profit from selling it that is what concerns them.

[Chester6]

I think an eBay sale may be different to income from books but in not familiar with the rules

I can see how you'd think telling them about the book would be enough but I think some do the job and ignore anything that means doing more then the role requires based on experience of them

[antone]

I wasn't sure if I needed to declare how much to them, I know lots of people who sell their goods, I had a friend who sold her iphone on Amazon for £500 for her rent and she didn't need to declare that. I know people with savings that don't need to declare unless they are over a certain amount. I had no clue at first how much the book would make. I did tell people I had a book.

 

I have no problem paying the money back I owe, I don't even mind losing my benefits, what I am most worried about is if this is a criminal case or even fraud and can or will they bring charges. Also if I signed off can I avoid the meeting altogether?

 

First off, I'd say it is highly unlikely that they're interested in making a criminal fraud case out of this. If they were, it would not be Compliance Officers interviewing you - it would be done "under caution" by fraud investigators. So while we can't say for sure, that isn't something I'd worry about.

 

Beyond that, there are two separate matters you've raised in your post.

 

1) Selling personal possessions on Ebay or somewhere similar: this is fine and doesn't need to be declared, although it would be wise to keep records of any such sales just in case Compliance takes an interest. Your friend was fine selling her iPhone to pay her rent, but if she had been buying up old iPhones and reselling them for profit then there would be concerns as she'd probably be classed as running a business.

 

2) The difference between income and capital: it is true that you can have up to £6000 in capital without your benefits being affected. Capital includes things like savings, shares, property (other than your main residence) and various types of one-off payments - redundancy money, gifts from relatives, lottery wins and so on. But royalties from the sale of copyrighted work are classed as income, not capital, and are treated the same way as earnings from work, pension income and so on. This is why you could have friends with a few grand in the bank without it affecting their benefits: it's treated as capital.

 

You can't safely assume that signing off will solve this problem. It might delay the consequences for a while, but the matter won't go away. I'd suggest you attend the interview with all bank statements, payslips for the royalties (if you have any such thing) and any other information relevant to the case.

[antone]

I think an eBay sale may be different to income from books but in not familiar with the rules

I can see how you'd think telling them about the book would be enough but I think some do the job and ignore anything that means doing more then the role requires based on experience of them

 

As I said, telling them "I wrote a book" is not the same as telling them "I had a book published and it's making me £600 per month." Lots of people write books; relatively few are as successful in that endeavour as our OP has been.

 

So let's not blame JCP staff for this - the onus falls entirely on the claimant to declare their income, and the claimant signs a declaration accepting this when making their claim. If, however, OP presented full and detailed information about the income to a JC adviser who ignored it or said "that's fine, no problem" then there could be a case to argue that this was official error. It's not something I'd be relying on if it were me, however.

[antone]

1)

 

Remember sexuality aside a civil partnership is between to of the same Gender and can include co-habiting people. EG Sisters living long term together are ellegable for civil partner status.

 

I don't disagree with most of your post, but I did want to pick up on this, because it is not correct. You can't be classed, for benefit purposes, as living with a person as a married couple (as it's now apparently called following SSM legislation) if such a relationship would be prohibited by law. Sisters may not marry or enter civil partnerships, so for benefit purposes they can't be classed as a couple.

 

Your fundamental point, though, is valid - differing sexuality will not be sufficient to disprove the idea that OP and her friend are a couple.

[DEV1L79]

I can see now that I have been very silly and quite gullible. It has been an honest mistake and like I said I am willing to pay back every penny I owe. I never set out to fool them or anything like that, I was not trying to rip them off or claim unwarranted benefits. I was totally open with all benefits staff and A4E staff, but I do see now I should have told the person while signing on how much I had made from the book. I am just going to go to the interview and be totally open and honest with them. I was at A4E today and a number of the staff are willing to vouch that I had told them about the book. (not so sure the benefits agency staff will do the same). There is no way for them to prove me and my flat mate are a couple because we are not. So I am just going to take the bull by the horns and deal with it. I just hope they can see I am genuine and was never out to rip them off.

 

I really appreciate your help, all that have replied, you have made me see my error and armed me with a whole new way to approach this interview. I am very grateful. Thank the Goddess this forum exists.

Edited September 25, 2014 by DEV1L79
added.

[antone]

I can see now that I have been very silly and quite gullible. It has been an honest mistake and like I said I am willing to pay back every penny I owe. I never set out to fool them or anything like that, I was not trying to rip them off or claim unwarranted benefits. I was totally open with all benefits staff and A4E staff, but I do see now I should have told the person while signing on how much I had made from the book. I am just going to go to the interview and be totally open and honest with them. I was at A4E today and a number of the staff are willing to vouch that I had told them about the book. (not so sure the benefits agency staff will do the same). There is no way for them to prove me and my flat mate are a couple because we are not. So I am just going to take the bull by the horns and deal with it. I just hope they can see I am genuine and was never out to rip them off.

 

I really appreciate your help, all that have replied, you have made me see my error and armed me with a whole new way to approach this interview. I am very grateful. Thank the Goddess this forum exists.

 

Benefits are complicated, and you can be forgiven for not knowing all of the rules and regulations. It's just best that you know what's what when approaching this interview. Note that telling A4E staff about these things isn't likely to make a difference, as they're not the ones who make these decisions.

 

Regarding the matter of your living arrangements, this PDF document is the guidance that the DWP use when determining whether two people are or are not a couple. You might find it helpful when making your case.

[DEV1L79]

Thanks antone, I will look through that PDF file.