Benefits- unintentional fraud (please help)

[User9667]

I've just realised (completely out the blew) that I have unintentially been claiming more Universal Credit than I believe I should be.

Was reading something on the news yesterday and it said about savings and UC (that you get deductions for any savings over 6k). I'm a student and have been saving for the past few years (from prev income, child maintenence and student loan). This is from me living extremely frugally in an attempt to eventually get a mortgage and to allow me to relocate/attend multiple job interviews when I get a job (travel to interviews, childcare etc).

I've been up all night terrified that I'm frauding benefits; I feel like a criminal and am extremely anxious. I don't recieve an awful lot because my student loan is taken into account, but I've worked out that I would owe around 1.5k (although hard to work out as my account fluctuates a lot).

I've also seen that if you have above 16k you're not entitled to anything. I was intending to save over this in the next year (by saving a large amoung of my grants and loan), but now I am absoutely lost on what to do. I need to re-pay the money I owe. I have this available to pay back straight away and obviously need to inform them that deductions need to be taken each month, but is this going to go against me?

There's things I've needed this year (a wardrobe as an example) and would have liked to go on a short break away with my DS. Had I of known about this deduction/cap I would have lived like a normal person and stopped being so stingey. I'm thinking next year I should just buy these things that I need and book a short break etc because I'm not going to be able to keep the savings anyway. Obviously I will still be getting deductions from the savings I do have but I suppose there is no point trying to deprive myself and let it accumilate if its just taking of more and more off what I would be entitled to? I've read up about deprivation of capital, but surely this wouldn't be seen as that as these are (IMO) very much normal expenses, I have just been choosing not to spend anything in an attempt to save.

Does anyone know what I can do?? I feel so stupid for not knowing regulations regarding savings, I've had my account way before I started thinking about saving and had absolutely no clue but its giving me extreme anxiety after finding out!!

In all honesty, I wouldn't worry, put it in writing, prepare to pay it back. You wont be taken to court for money you just pay back.

You have no way of knowing this. OP, don't incriminate yourself. Hopefully it will work out this way, if you're below the threshold and can repay. But you need to approach it carefully. What you see as being open and honest and acting in the interests of resolution, an investigator may see as an open goal. You're not on an equal footing with these people and you need advice from someone who understands this and will act in your interest ie a solicitor. They deal with stuff like this all the time, and far far worse incidentally, and they won't judge you.

Good luck op. I can't add anything as I've no special knowledge but I really hope it works out.

OP don't forget that student finance is counted as income for a certain period. So the money you receive in September is income until the following January when you receive the next payment.

@Morasssassafras I do understand that but I don't know how this works because although that is to last say 3 months, Its still in my account over the 6k mark if you see what I mean?

But it's not savings at that point. Say you have £5k savings and then receive £3.5k from student finance. You have £8.5k in your bank but still only £5k of that is savings in October, November and December. In January you still have £1.5k of student finance so it now becomes £6.5k savings and you will be deducted x amount for the £500 extra over the £6k in the following assessment periods of February and March. In April more money becomes savings.

Obviously with multiple sources of income it will become complicated to work out how much savings you had at each assessment period, especially over an extended period of time. Are you any good with spreadsheets? I would imagine that would be the way to go if you want to work it out for yourself.

I have multiple bank accounts and move money between them frequently so I can always see easily how much I have that is income and how much savings for this reason.

[quote User9667]@ImFree2doasiwant I wouldn't of had any when I first claimed, it's my fault as I don't tend to read things properly. I think every year I've had an online declaration as well but again it's just said to notify them of any change of circumstances but hasn't said what these were. All I knew was that I notify them when my student loan comes through, send them these documents, and let them know when it stops. Because I applied years ago (call me naive) I had no idea this meant declaring savings.[/quote]
They do the calculations for you on the student loan, so they average it out over the period of study. As long as you declared it, you can essentially discount it. So what's the amount on top of any student loan for that year that you had in savings?
Honestly? It sounds like you are getting in a flap needlessly if it's the student loan plus under 6k in savings at any one time. I'd just make sure that in future you are not saving up beyond 6k plus the year student loan (and use the government help to save account for savings) and not worry about this.

You seem like an honest and decent person. Dont beat yourself up over something you didn't know until now, and the fact you are wanting to correct the situation

@TheLegendOfZelda ah yes I think perhaps I can discount some of it based on it being student loan to cover the months. But because I have been living very frugally I don't spend the rest so some of it stays. I don't really know how much as i just keep in my account what is remaining but regardless, this year I have probably been around 3-5k over the 6k limit so especially this year I should be getting a reduced amount. I also need to keep saving as I will need to spend a lot when I move (usually 6 months upfront rent) so I can't keep to the 6k, but I will obviously need to get deductions made.

@PopsicleHustler thank you, I would never intentionally do this as I'm hoping to get a good career (can't risk a criminal record or alike) so it's quite scary.

I've just spoken to CAB and they've said to send a message on my journal and obviously be completely honest/ask to send all bank statements. Just have to hope that they see it as a genuine mistake

Does anyone know what has come of this? I'm in a similar place. Was told over the phone by a Decision Maker that we owe 3.5k and that we would receive a letter off debt management. This was in March. Have rang UC and Debt Department and neither of them have anything on their system to say we owe anything!!

We have the money ready to pay it off, but can't do. All we keep being told is not to worry as we don't owe anything, even though we added loads of bank statements onto UC and it was being it dealt with by a Decision Maker.

Really not sure what to do about it and I'm.now thinking has it been passed onto fraud team even though it was us who notified them about it (we didn't realise about savings limit) and that the decision maker seemed fine with all the bank statements after questioning one or two things.

Any help or experience dealing with anything like this would be great.

OP do you have an update on what happened with this?