To have unwittingly broken the law and be worried.

[nnnnnnnnnnn]

I am Irish and was living and working in England the past 8 years. Anyway after covid hit , I lost my job[was only on temporary contract after taking some leave from October- Feb to do a bit of travelling] and signed on universal credit. This was fine and I stayed in UK but in mid May a shock tragedy happened at home and my much younger brother [only 11] was killed in an accident and so I returned home suddenly. The last few months have being hectic and I decided to stay in Ireland to help parents[dm was understandably in a very bad mental place] as I am their only daughter[was only me and departed db in family] and I returned to work full time here in start of August. Anyway today I was tying up loose ends in UK as I hadn't got around to it with all the upheaval in the last few months and was cancelling direct debits/UK phone etc and checking my English emails I'd not checked in months when I realised I hadn't cancelled my benefits before I'd left. I haven't actively used my English bank account since May when I left. Hand on heart and on my brother's grave, I had totally forgot all about it with everything that had happened and I instantly contacted them and told them I was leaving UK and to cancel it. I know I am in a different country but I am worried I could get in trouble for this. BTW I will not be keeping the money from this[it's not a big amount but not the point] and it will be donated to charity but aibu to think the UK benefits system could track me down here and get me in trouble for my oversight if they discovered this or seen I'd been working here in August and claiming there? I already suffer from bad anxiety [on meds] and now this has made me even more anxious.

Seems to be working with some of you.

Well, we have a choice. The OP may well be genuine. If that's the case then assuming she is using her brother's death as smoke and mirrors is potentially very hurtful. It might also put other people off asking for advice. She might not be genuine, in which case what does it really matter if people assume she means it? It seems far less harmful to me to assume people are genuine than otherwise.

Jesus Christ there’s some nasty people on Mumsnet. Did you miss the part where the OP lost her 11year old brother. Nothing else matters when something or that happens.

While it is tragic, any loss of a loved one is tragic and an 11 year old is heartbreaking, life outside of the family goes on.

And for the OP that means that an understandable oversight needs to be corrected, it's a simple phone call without the lies or half truths or 'oh I'm too busy'.

I'm with you, MiloViner.

If you think you fraudulently obtained money/broken the law and financially gained, why would your first thought be to donate the funds to charity? It would be easiest to just return the money and stop any potential proceedings before it begins.

As far as getting away with it, no one can really comment. They have 6 years to chase you for it, so that’s 6 years of looking over your shoulder which isn’t worth the stress IMO