U/C overpayment

[MyGladMember]

I am a single parent have been for many years with no support. Up until last year I was working full time in a school when my daughter needed extra support and was being sent home from school regular.
So long story short. Until October 2021 she was receiving dla and that stopped.
I didn't think, carried on going to work and such. Fast forward now she seems to be settled enough in a new school that I'm looking at part time work but I've noticed that the disability payment is still on my claim.
I'm absolutely pooping myself, I don't want to go to prison obviously. I'm worried my picture will be on the news and her dad will find us. We fled due to dv so there is literally just me and 2 kids.
I'm going out of my mind.

Please help

Why did it stop in 2021? Have you not looked at a statement in 3 years?

It had to be renewed and they declined.
In this time we have battled, I have 2 kids with mental health problems. Daughter self harms at 11 so it's been full on and in all of this I had to have a op 2 years ago so it's not been great. My depression has been bad so keeping on top of statements hasn't been on my list really.
Maybe a quick glance if I've had an email when they asked about my job but that's been it.
We have submitted a new dla claim cos she is receiving more help but I'm just panicking

I doubt it's prison worthy and even if it was no news outlet would be interested in putting your face in papers. How long will the new claim for DLA take?

You're not going to prison and your face won't be on the news.

Go onto your journal and report a change in circumstances. Tell them you no longer receive child DLA and the date it ended.

Then explain that you didn't notice the disabled child and carer's amounts on your breakdown but that you've noticed them now and you'd like to put things right.

They will recalculate your UC for the past few years and work out what you need to pay back. Then they will deduct a bit from your UC each month.

You haven't committed benefit fraud because you never had an intention to defraud. Its really not a crime you can commit by accident.

This sort of thing happens all the time and, in the vast majority of cases, all the DWP does is issue an overpayment notice and make monthly deductions.

Once you've got all that sorted, I would look into reclaiming child DLA, if you can, and getting the extra amounts back for the future!

Good luck

I would contact UC and just be honest. I've had a fair few mistakes happen with mine. I've had two overpayments so far and all that happened was I was sent a letter with the amount of overpayment owed and a payment plan to pay it back. This was then taken off my future payments. You can also pay debt off in larger amounts if you have savings to do so. It's better that you say you think there's a mistake with your claim, then them working it out later. They are there to help. I was panicking so much when it happened to me and it was all sorted out very quickly.

Apparently they are back logged so might not hear anything until early next year.
I'm hoping that the fact they haven't noticed goes in my favour but being a single parent hiding and trying to do things by the book you panic don't you.

Thank you so much this is reassuring.
With them all working for the government you'd think they all had the same information on you.