Received letter saying that I owe Universal Credit £19,000 - have never claimed

[Twitterwhooooo]

Posting here for traffic.

I received a letter on Friday saying that I owed UC £19,000 in overpayments and if I don't pay they'll contact my employer/send bailiffs round.

I've never claimed UC. During the period they state (May 2020 and May 2021) was I self-employed, so claimed the SEIS grants as my income dropped. These were declared on my self-assessment form, of course.

Called number today and explained. The letter/info held on me is my correct name, address, NI number, DOB, phone etc. The woman I spoke to say that 'she'd make a note' and it took some pressing to get her to escalate it to Fraud but she doesn't know what their time frames are etc. She sounded very unconcerned.

Called UC who gave me another number to call, which I'll do tomorrow, as I couldn't keep taking phone calls at work.

It's either identity theft or a massive mistake. What do I do to escalate this? Do I call the police?

TIA

My pp should obviously say £19k pa.

I wouldn't feel too worried about this. Sure it's a hassle and unneeded stress, but nobody will come after you for money you never claimed. Just leave it to them to sort it out, and if you receive another request for money call them. But otherwise don't bother.

Contact your mp as well as CAB. Google will tell you who this is and how to o do it. I have worked at DWP and an MP’s letter was always taken note seriously. Also in reply to other posters there is no way they will tell you what back account it was paid into. You could try an FReedom of Information request but still not sure if that would work

I had something similar about 15 years ago.
years ago

I received a letter telling me I owed £7000 in tax credits over payments

Given Dh earned too much to claim tax credits we had never ever claimed anything

i sent a SAR request to find out what they had (whilst receiving several letters saying we owed. This money and there was no point in denying it or putting the repayment off

I received back a screen shot from a computer which had my name and address and then a line saying payment to me £7000.

I told them if that was all they had then please take me to court and stop threatening to and we will see who the judge believes

They never took me to court

Recently had Universally credit telling me I owed just under £50
Apparently I have been told where this had originated from.

Spoke to a really horrible guy at UC who almost did the same script. Telling me I couldn’t deny owing this money. I had to repay it and if I didn’t they would take. It to court

I said to him that I didn’t know where this amount had come from as I had never ever been paid UC and he called me a liar
It has taken several hours on the phone to sort this out. Or rather put it on hold and the conclusion was that it did look odd as before this overpayment I never claimed anything from Uc

I think this is a really big security issue as there could be someone transferring money into their own bank account and just billing other people to replace the money.

Not read the whole thread, but if this hadnt already been mentioned, may be worth checking your credit file to ensure there are no bank accounts etc in your name you don’t recognise.
Having said that, not 100% sure whether all accounts would show, or only those that can have an o/d facility. Ie not basic or savings accounts.
also check through for any hard or soft (ID) searches on your credit files.

Yes 19K sounds like an enormous amout . How could that be possible? 50 children and dependants? Why can't it be sorted out straight away?
It could be the identity theft thing but DWP are in such a mess with fraud or too busy trying to sort the chaos they are probably making a lot of false accusations or at least being very unhelpful - but that can have very serious consequences when they pass on this mess to the public. It could push someone over the edge ... Do they care? Nothing really changes in spite of Covid.

Thanks all - an update.

Someone from UC called yesterday and went through details of claim with me. The person used my name, NI number, dob, address etc, but a different phone number and different email address.

The caller asked me to tell him the last 4 digits of my bank account, which are different to the account that money has been paid into.

He has authorised a block on the action. Said that there have been a lot of these cases and it's not usually possible to find out how someone stole my identity.

So, big relief, but there may be other debts out there in my name. Circular could you (or someone else) advise me how to check my credit file and what/if searches have been done please?

Thanks so much

New post to say if you receive one of these letters, DO NOT assume that it's a scam and ignore it.

Useful details on credit file checking here.
www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/check-free-credit-report/
if you sign up for a free trial with any, remember to cancel before getting charged monthly fee.

The credit reports should contain a section of searches and ID checks.
if you see any, think carefully about the dates, ID checks can be legit if you’ve been getting insurance quotes or similar.
Full credit checks should only apply if you’ve taken out credit (even mobile phone contracts) or opened bank accounts.

You can sign up to Credit Karma or the MSE credit club to check your file without having to pay anything or remember to cancel, both are totally free.

It's worrying that UC don't appear to write to people anymore. If you'd have received letters in the post about this claim at the time, it would have been known about a lot sooner, before they sent £19k to a fraudster.

Good to read your update OP, and I hope they manage to get things sorted out properly now.

Thanks Circular and all.

I have been using Clear Score lately. It’s totally free, easy to setup and it shows you all of your info - bank accounts, mortgages, credit etc. really good.

Sorry to hear this is fraud. Experian have a victims of fraud service where you can talk to someone and if you do have other stuff on your credit report they can help you sort it out.

You should get your free report from all 3 credit ref agencies as different companies use different ones - Experian, Equifax, Transunion

Very pleased to hear that the DWP are dealing with it - what a relief they didn't just start taking it out of your wages

I’m disabled & worried about going over to UC, I don’t cope well with change, so I’ve done the calculations for myself & I certainly won’t have £19,000 coming into the household on it! I currently don’t get that amount of money on old style HB, support group ESA, CTC & CB. I will be worse off on UC!
Single, disabled parent household with one child in school.
I am unable to work & will probably never work again so I am at the mercy of benefits & it is not a life I would wish in anyone :(
I also have friends who are working, part time as they are single parents with younger kids at primary school, & claiming UC. They certainly aren’t bringing in £19,000 a year even with their wage added to what UC sees fit to allow them each month.
They are lucky if they are bringing in £13,000 & that is with their wage & the UC top up!!

PIP is a completely separate benefit. It is not means tested so literally anyone can claim it no matter what they earn from work or have in savings.

@Grrrrdarling I didn’t mention pip at all? The family I referred to have five disabled people and two adults to support plus childcare costs. That’s why their equivalent of tax credits is higher than yours or the other people you have mentioned.
you won’t be worse of on UC though you will have transitional protection so will receive the same as you do currently.

Many of us who are disabled will lose money even with the transitional protection which doesn't cover the amount we currently get under ESA.

@TigerRag the TP will cover it that’s why they temporarily stopped some disabled claimants from being able to claim UC while the issue is sorted. Eventually TP will be eroded as you won’t get any increases with inflation etc but you will initially receive exactly the same as you do with ESA.

TP won't cover it. It's estimated that 900,000 will be worse off. Some will be tax credit claims with more than £6k in savings and many will be disabled people.

TP will be £120 a month. Every benefit calculator I've looked at, says I'll lose around £120 a month under UC.

@TigerRag you get TP will savings for 12 months. The calculators do not take into account TP stop looking at them and either listen to what I am saying or read the government guides. TP is exactly that you will receive exactly the same.

@TigerRag read this instead of listening to scaremongering
www.gov.uk/government/publications/completing-the-move-to-universal-credit/completing-the-move-to-universal-credit--2

You do need to resolve it though just so that you know mistake was made with my claim 18 years ago there’s absolutely nothing I can do to prove it now because I don’t have any of the paperwork so they are literally planning to deduct £500 out of my salary next month and there is nothing I can do about it.