DWP compliance interview - asking for savings statements

[moon304]

Hi all I am wondering if anyone can help me,

I received a letter from DWP saying that a compliance officer is going to call me for an interview - I was wondering if this is routine or random?

 

I had the interview today and the lady on the phone (who was quite friendly) asked me questions about my savings and if I had any and how much I had etc. I truthfully answered the questions however she stated that I need to send in my savings statements from my banks.

 

This is not an issue however one thing I’m concerned about is that I paid my landlord a bulk sum of rent from Sept 2020-Dec 2021 as with the pandemic etc, a few of my friends were getting kicked out of their rental homes therefore I wanted to ensure I had somewhere to live which was secure. 
 

I have been claiming to UC that I pay rent £800 month and they’ve been sending that however I’ve been using that as living money as I paid the rent in bulk already. 

On my statement it shows that I paid out 15k to my landlord in November 2020 (when I started claiming) however the money I’ve been getting from UC for my rent I have kept to put in place of the rent which I paid out. 

 

Does anybody know if this is allowed? Will I be penalised for this?

 

 

[dx100uk]

urm..that could be interesting.

you disposed of £15k, by whatever method, and that was above the £6k limit to claim, it could be viewed you disposed of this to gain benefits.

 

you should be ok if you have a receipt and proof of where it went. rent in advance.

[moon304]

I do have proof that it went to my landlord via bank transfer. Can DWP gain access to my bank records? 
 

I’m just wondering if I would be allowed to claim that I pay £800 rent when I have already paid it off? I only put that so I could make back the money I paid from my savings whilst I was on UC as in hindsight it would’ve gone towards my rent. 

 

I feel so stressed and sick to my stomach - I’m not sure if I’m just overreacting or if it’s serious and they’re investigating me. 

[dx100uk]

as long as you have proof there is not harm in sending what they need

include a note to explain, briefly what you have here.

you had to pay rent in advance to secure your stable future.

 

are you saying you now have MORE than £6k in savings?

[moon304]

Thank you, yes I have more than 6k in savings but I told this to the lady on the phone when she rang. 

She advised that you’re allowed 6-16K in savings anything above that they will reassess your claim and you may have to pay back money to them. I just don’t want to be taken to court or anything so I’m a bit worried. 
 

 

[dx100uk]

oh blimey that will never happen, stop worrying

it was not intentional. seriously!!

 

[unclebulgaria67]

As it not a usual practice to pay so much rent up front, the DWP compliance officer may ask you to provide some justification for this action.   And the information you provide may need to be passed to Decision Makers to review whether this action is deprivation of capital, designed so you could claim UC at an earlier point.

 

By paying so much of the rent upfront, therefore reducing capital below £16000 meant you could claim UC.   If you had savings above £16000 before you paid the rent, then normally you would pay the rent and other living expenses out of the funds you had available.   And only claim UC, once those savings reduced below £16000.

 

It may help you, if you provide some information about how you accumulated the savings, to see if it would have been money that was disregarded when working out capital.

[moon304]

Oh right I see what you mean. 
 

Yes I will attach a note along with my statements and hopefully everything is okay. 
 

Do you know if these compliant checks they do are random or if they are for a reason? 

[dx100uk]

Mixture of both. No way of knowing sadly.

 

yoyll be fine, we've seen FAR FAR worse that have comeout very ok.

 

use our enhanced google search box

Compliance interview

 

and get reading..100's of like threads here

 

Dx