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?

If they are just asking for bank statements then that’s not the same thing as accusing her of fraud. They usually interview people under caution if they suspect fraud.

It does not sound like this is the case.

The worst that would probably happen is that they’ll say she was overpaid and ask her to pay it back imo.

I agree. OP's daughter has basically taken a gap year. Whilst it isn't against the rules to claim during a gap year. It isn't what the benefit system is for. Lots of people take a gap year because they change their minds about courses or universities. They could all claim UC for six months to fund their flight to Bali or wherever. As @Sidebeforeself said, you can spend it on whatever you like.

@Est1974 has your dd closed her claim with UC or is she still claiming? It's quite unusual for them to be reviewing her if she's closed her claim.

Very good question and a good point - I know she’s not received a penny since May but she might not have which would completely explain the strongly worded letters. I’ll ask her.

She needs to request to close her claim.

@Est1974
was it from the enhanced review team or just normal review

it can take ages to sort out even a standard review can take 3–4 months

but honestly it will be at the worse 50 civil penalty and payback anything that’s owed

It's for anyone who is eligible to claim it legitimately. HTH.

They are not strongly worded letters, they are big standard letters. You said your DD can catastrophise, yet you seem to be applying the same level of reaction, saying ehe is being accused of fraud etc. she is literally being reviewed which is totally normal. Closing her claim won’t make a difference at this stage; the review will continue but if she got to 6 months of zero payment UC would close it anyway

There isn't an infinite pot of money. Current spending isn't sustainable. HTH

It's not up to claimants to sort that out. If you want to make political points about UC, start your own thread, don't waste everyone's time with irrelevant whingeing on posts where someone is asking for help.

Your DD might be in trouble. You say quote she is now sitting on £18k. She should have informed UC about her change of circumstances and closed her claim.

£100!?

It’s very simple .. if you are entitled to Uc and claim it you can spend the money on what you want. Nobody tracks whether you spend it on food or cocaine. But this is about the other funds OPs daughter had , and when, which may mean she wasn’t also entitled to the UC she got at the time. That’s what UC are questioning and it can all be resolved as many of us have said , by sending in the statements as requested

Aldo OP I really object to you using the phrase “ gunning for her”. They are following the law.

You can, for sure. But should you? I would say not.
if you imagine the visual - there’s a bit pot with gold coins in right there open on the pavement. People who really need it, are taking a coin. You don’t need one. You take one anyway because you can. Morally, that’s wrong.
I am assuming every one on this thread who is saying ‘it’s fine to take money meant for those who need it which you don’t need’ are doing it themselves.

And to add to this, the people who are filling that pot with gold coins are the strangers who are going to work. Every four hours they work, they work an extra hour for a gold coin for that pot.

You just sound incredibly entitled.

I'm fine with that.

Better than it going to tax incentives for people on over £100k.

They’re not mutually exclusive. Both things could happen at once. Maybe people who don’t need it, from either end, don’t take it.

It is. But it's hard not to feel annoyed by someone claiming UC who has such little need of it that they're able to save it all because their housing, water, heating, gas, council tax, TV licence, and food is all paid-for by someone else.

The savings were from periods of working, not the periods when she was eligible for UC with a reduction to account for savings whilst fulfilling the work seeking requirements of 35 hours job search a week.

The savings were from both. The op detailed somewhere that she saved her UC from the beginning apart from a little bit of food. She never needed it.

The ‘18k little war chest’ comment has irritated me, probably irrationally. She didn’t need the UC money at the time and it has contributed to her building this ‘war chest’. I can bet that there are thousands of struggling working families on UC who have little to no savings as they are the ones who need and use that money to live.

in response to the OP, hand in the statements and things will likely be ok.

How is this lawyer being paid? I would never engage a lawyer because I don't have the money to pay for one. This girl is surey best off just showing the prrof of her bank statements for the year, her pay slips and the dates of her UC payments.

Well I don’t agree she needs a lawyer, she just needs to send the statements she has been asked for. However, if she did want a lawyer she has £18k 🤷🏻‍♀️