My daughter is under investigation for fraud with universal credit. Can anyone help?

[Est1974]

My daughter went to uni last year, realised it wasn’t the right course and dropped out by the end of October to reapply for this year. I’d paid into a child trust fund her whole life that she closed to pay her living expenses to top up the loan - about 7.5k in total. She signed on when she got back and started looking for work. She declared the money appropriately and her uc was trimmed in line with it being over 6k. She got a couple of uc payments. She then got a Christmas shop job that lasted 6 weeks. Uc stopped during this period. I charged a little bit for food but she saved the rest and declared it properly each month. She applied for hundreds of jobs but didn’t get one until the May. She lived like a hermit, saved the uc and declared it every month as her savings went up. The May to September job paid really well and she saved almost all of it. She got no uc during either of the periods of paid employment. She was awarded two scholarships for women in engineering for her new university course. She is now in the new uni with a little war chest of nearly 18k.

Universal Credit are now gunning for her and want 12 months worth of bank statements and are accusing her of fraud. She got no money while she was working and at the time she got the second job she’d only amassed about 8k - well under the 16k limit which she declared properly at every stage and the uc she received between January and may went down accordingly as she saved it. The jump from 8-14 was during her summer job during which she wasn’t claiming and the other 4k is from the women in engineering scholarships. She wasn’t claiming while she got these earnings.

Shes on her own at uni in her first week, full of freshers flu and petrified. What will happen?

Just send them the information they want. Send an explanation of why she did what she did and see what happens next.

They always do background checks and ask for bank statements, they have no picked her claim up and gone fraud. Long as she has nothing to hide what's the problem!

The process is scary and I think they make it scary intentionally. She sounds like she’s done it all right but I totally get why she’s worried.

Just send the bank statements if they show what you say it will be fine, if they don't it may be a problem.

Is that you Wolfie?

Honestly - don’t panic! Send the bank statements and send a letter with all the info. Also call them. I had this with HMRC - their letters were scarey but then I phoned - spoke to someone really nice and I owed nothing - give them the info you have done here in writing and call them

Since she’s consistently been honest, it won’t be an issue to send the bank statements.

This is not fraud - this is a genuine mistake. Explain it to them and don't worry. They know what fraud is like - and this is not it.

Tell your daughter not to worry, she is one of many being asked to provide bank statements. It will come to nothing.

If everything is as you say and was declared correctly I would assume it has simply been flagged in an audit because in usual circumstances someone being able to save whilst on what I assume was a relatively small amount of UC would raise reasonable suspicion that they were working.

If no UC was claimed during her employment stints then this will be backed up by the statements and highly unlikely to be any further issue.

She will be fine. Just need evidence of when £ came in.

I'm not even seeing a mistake.

If haven't done anything wrong, you won't have to pay any money back, even if it's be a pain in the arse to prove it.

Absolutely no need to bring it lawyers!

"£100 to calm you down" is a ridiculous over-escalation of a boring administrative query.

She's been honest so she will be fine. Assure her of that.

Great response! Come the revolution…

I’ve had this recently. She just needs to provide everything they ask and attend the calls. I used chat gpt to help me with the anxiety and it was brilliant in reassuring me that it will be ok - which it was. If everything is above board she will be absolutely fine. Everyone claiming UC has to go through this. Mine took ages! I had to provide statements from PayPal and all sorts.

Does she have a student loan too ?

If it’s as you say OP then it’s just general bread and butter fraud checks - I’m afraid if you claim then these days it’s common for checks - I would triple check though in advance there’s nothing she’s not telling you like ‘forgetting’ to sign off whilst earning - I’m not judging , but she wouldn’t be the first to not get around to something and then be frightened to admit.

Does this have anything to do with student finance? Did she have a loan for the year, and did she declare it when she applied for UC? Just a thought, I was caught out by this as a student when taking a year out (it went to tribunal, I had docs to back me up, I won) but much earlier on in the process. Otherwise yes, if you can show documentation that she's done it by the book you'll be fine.

It sounds like a review which are very common. Just send them what they’ve asked for. They may ask for a phone call to clarify anything they have questions about. I know it feels intimidating but it sounds like she’s done everything right.

There is absolute no need to get a lawyer. Just provide the bank statements. They'll work out if she's been overpaid and if she has she'll need to pay it back on a payment plan. Don't worry about the letter, it's not personal it's a standard template they send everyone. Setting out things clearly so anyone reading it can understand. I went through this at the start of the year it's completely fine if she has nothing to hide, just follow the process.

Did she send them the 3 months worth of statements when they asked for them?

I don’t think they have accused her of fraud, they’re just wanting more information at this point. Try not to worry, If she’s been honest but still has been overpaid, I’d imagine worst case scenario she just needs to pay it back over time.

You sound very emotive, just support your daughter to provide the information requested. She would know if they were investigating her for fraud, unless things have changed they would conduct an interview under caution.

What exactly is it that they’ve said?

My friend had to show 5 years worth of bank statements (!) as she is self employed and they said she’d mixed up the dates she declared what she’d spent on stock and what she’d earn a few times in the window they’d asked for.

It took ages for her to hear back as obviously someone had to analyse 5 years of statements. She was a mess whilst it was going on. In the end they said she owed a bit of money but they were really nice about it, she still claims and they’ve knocked it off her UC statement every month. Nothing else happened. If what your daughter has said is true she just needs to send over the statements and surely someone will call her to talk over it?