Universal credit

[Fred40]

I’ve been claiming benefit for 5 years with too much savings (20k+)
they have requested bank statements which I’ve sent.
Am I in serious trouble
very worried concerned

Crikey. Yeah, I guess you've been caught out.
They can make you pay all of it back from the day you had over £16k. I think they could prosecute but I doubt it would be custodial. More a fine. But they'll take it out of your benefits or savings whether you like it or not I think. But hopefully not all in one go.

I hope you've learned it's never a good idea to lie about such things.

Savings are asked about in the claim form though, so OP would have had to lie about the amount unless they were secret savings even they didn’t know about.

They do ask about savings so regardless of whether or not you say you remember, they'll say that you were made aware of savings limits and still went ahead with and continued the claim. They'll want all the money back that you fraudulently claimed and they'll consider prosecution. How likely prosecution is, I don't know.

Well, yes. The vile comments are not needed. OP sounds worried and I hope they have got things sorted going forward.

Did you genuinely think other tax payers should support you while you had tons of savings you could have spent on getting yourself through a rough patch? Genuine question, as this blows my mind!