Universal credit - can they vet your spending?

[Eileen101]

My husband left us (me and two children) 6 months ago and I have recently made a universal credit claim to help get me on to an even keel.
I work full time so it'll only be a small amount.

On one hand I'm looking forward to hearing from them regarding the first payment to ease the pressure a bit. But I hear that UC can contact you to query various entries in your bank account. Am I being anxious or to what extent can current UC claimants report on how much UC vet your spending during reviews? Or are they just concerned about what comes in?

They're more concerned about what comes in I'd imagine. And they only check bank accounts if there's reason to believe fraud is being committed. You shouldn't have a problem in your position

Thank you, I suspected that would be the case, it's just fear of the unknown I guess - "did you really need to spend £x in ikea?" Etc but I think my imagination is probably running away with me through anxiety.

Absolutely not, it's your money to do with as you please. The only time they may query if for deprivation of capital, but day to day spending wont be looked at

I really don't think so.
My dil and partner have had uc for 3 years. They have had 2 queries. Daughter was called in after scrutiny of her bank account. The query was my gift to her monthly. But it was conceded that this was entirely within the guidelines. Another was when they sold something to pay off the loan that was associated with it. Again all absolutely fine.
They both work, it's the combination of rent and childcare costs which means they qualify

Just a warning re childrens savings accounts if you have them, there was a post on here a while ago where a mum had missed that her particular childrens savings account should count towards the total amount of savings as the money wasn't locked in but she could withdraw from it and that took her over the allowed savings limit. I'm not sure if she had to pay her UC back or if it got sorted in the end, it was under investigation at the time.

They can get all in your business and it’s quite terrifying. I am lucky in that I recently managed to come off UC but I was utterly terrified of being investigated. Even if I haven’t done anything wrong, the having to comply with being answerable to them about my finances really angered me.

Similar happened to Me

DM puts some money in my account sometimes so I can order her an online shopping delivery to her address.
They asked to go through my bank statements for some reason, just last year.
Got a phone call from a nice lady (pre arranged call on a Saturday) and once I explained the payment from DM to Me, she said thats fine and that was that.

I just had the pre arranged phone call a few days ago. Took about 15 minutes tops.
4 months bank statements previously uploaded to the UC claim page.
Off the top of my head,
A long list of questions they are obliged to ask about income,
Bank account, savings, premium bonds, credit cards, isa's, rental properties income, dependants, pension, earnings, paypal, who lives in the house with me etc etc

Then going through statements pretty much every line of in coming money
Who do I work for
How much is my rent
Who do I rent from
Who are my utilities with
What is this payment paid in(birthday gift no problem)
What are these payments in(adult dd housekeeping to me)

I was specifically asked if anyone paid my bills or paid towards them. (see previous question about dd paying housekeeping) no problem
A specific question about a paypal payment in (pennies, an Ebay security thing)

Zero questions about shopping habits.

Assuming you don't have a lodger and don't have some Ebay shop giving you incomes, you'll be fine.

Like others have said they are more interested in the money coming in & savings.
They look over (I think) 3 months past bank statements to check if you have any abnormal spending eg an attempt to self depreciate in order to claim.

They won't be at all interested in what you are spending money on. They are much more interested in undeclared money coming in. Make sure you have CM payments marked on your statements as CM, they are not counted. They would not routinely check bank statements unless you were having a review or they had suspicions.
I think there seems to have been a big step up with all benefits departments recently with rooting out fruadulent claims, so UC claimants having reviews, councils clamping down ( probably due to half of them being almost bankrupt.) etc. I'm also on a PIP forum on fb and in the past few days have been two cases where people have been investigated/ followed/ filmed as suspected of not reporting improvements in their conditions. This new government did say they were going to crack down on fraud.

What is the name of that pip forum on FB please.

Any income you received from a lodger is ignored as income for your Universal Credit claim.

NCed. I'm a UCR agent. Whoever it was who did your interview really shouldn't have asked any of these...
Who do I work for
How much is my rent
Who do I rent from
Who are my utilities with

It has no bearing on the review at all.

Children’s savings do not count, the law is very clear, although individual UC advisers get the regulations wrong.

I think UC will care about deprivation of capital. But not day to day spending.
They're more bothered about income.

I've never had a review and am dreading it.

Surely not credit cards as well is that the case?

I read on here a while ago children's savings do count unless they are the type that can't be accessed till the chikd is 18.

@DragonFly98 yes, they shouldn't ask about credit cards either, or ask for credit card statements.

I don’t know if this is relevant to you but I was asked to go to the job centre today with three months worth of bank statements for two accounts I have and my building society book. They wanted to check the amounts I had declared.

Apparently they do if it's an account that is in their name but can still withdraw from. If it's one of those where the money is locked in until the child is an adult they don't count but it's not always easy to know which ones are which aren't.

I am on UC and am seeing that getting called for a review is common now.
I don't work, have no incomings apart from my UC, and sometimes my mum sends me money for things like vet bills.
However, I live in the house I shared with my ex. He owns the house, and I live there (I don't claim housing element as it classed as contrived), but he moved out years ago. He still pays the bills as they were always in his name, but I send him money each month to cover them. He has transferred a couple over to me. It is just gas/electric that needs to be moved now, but he had issues with them a while back and it is not something I would have been able to deal with (had a gas bill for thousands, and had to pay them first then sort out later).
Would that be an issue when I am reviewed? I would worry they think he still lives here (he doesn't even live in the UK, and got married after he left me).
I follow the benefits advice subReddit, and I remember comment on there that said it was against UC rules for someone to have a bill in their name that does not live with you.

They can check what you spend, but I have no idea what they do if they disagree with it. A few months ago they seemed to be on a checking spree. They asked me for several months bank records and asked what some costs were. Nothing came of it. I just got a message to say the review was complete.

No they don’t, it’s not ambiguous at all, if a child is the beneficiary owner it is not counted. A parent being naked is irrelevant, it’s the biggest myth out there re UC and needs to go into room 101ASAP
see H1077 ( page 7)
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65d336b3e1bdec2be1322238/admh1.pdf?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0a3lYAl_u_8J3XJCc7pEjPR1I9Rjbye-m1l7G9Ck5VIONtL3oBfv4jg6o_aem_Gn0pJTUQIo6Zw4prNOd2lg

Don’t believe everything you read this specifically mentions accounts that are in a parents name as well as a child’s ie a regular child account. See page 7 all that matters is who the beneficiary owner is.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65d336b3e1bdec2be1322238/admh1.pdf?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0a3lYAl_u_8J3XJCc7pEjPR1I9Rjbye-m1l7G9Ck5VIONtL3oBfv4jg6o_aem_Gn0pJTUQIo6Zw4prNOd2lg

I’ve heard of it happening to people but I’m not sure of the circumstances as to why. I’ve been on UC for almost a year, never checked anything.