Benefit issue

[Humbled3]

Am I being unreasonable to offer to pay back all the money (£9000) that I was paid for wrongly claiming for UC? Was barely breaking even with my rental property, didn't realize I should have declared it as part of income, regardless. Am I right to feel scared? Just got a job after losing two in a short space of time due to death in the family and kids feeling suicidal. What do I say to make dwp not prosecute. I feel sick to my stomach and I can feal my chronic illness flaring up. Please advise what to do.

Have you been told that you're going to be prosecuted?

You need to talk to a criminal law solicitor. For £9k they could prosecute I'm sorry to say. And whenever criminal law is involved holding your hands up and admitting liability straightaway is rarely the best course of action. Get a good solicitor. Look at the law society website and find one in your area with a decent ratin. Ring them tomorrow and book an appointment. Good luck.

Get on to Debt management for UC in the morning and get a repayment plan sorted out.
There will be a number of the overpayment letter. I should know off by heart now but I can get you the number when I get into work tomorrow.

You'll feel better once you've spoken to them

ONLY the extenuating circumstances, though. Nothing that might read as an admission of intent.

Unfortunately your work coach or case manager won't be able to do much with the overpayment, you will be instructed to ring our debt management number.

Try not to worry too much, they will help with a repayment plan

Sorry missed that it was BTL rental income. If you were “barely breaking even” how have you racked up none thousand pounds overpayment before it was noticed? What period was this over?

Agree with PP. You need criminal legal advice. The optics of a BTL landlord wrongly claiming ££££s of UC aren’t great.

Don't put anything in your damn journal, please. Talk to a solicitor.

@Karenetta

Don't put anything in your damn journal, please. Talk to a solicitor.

No you’re right. I’ll ask for that post to be deleted. I hadn’t read the OP correctly. Wasn’t picturing huge amounts of rental income.

I owed £4k. All they wanted was a payment plan. So don't panic. Take the advice given on this thread.

Rental income isn't usually counted income for UC but the value of the property would be counted as capital. Was there any equity in the property? You are allowed to deduct 10% for selling costs.

www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Own-other-property

www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/14940/#70661

Hi OP. Have the DWP made an appointment with you to be interviewed?

[quote TooManyPJs]Rental income isn't usually counted income for UC but the value of the property would be counted as capital. Was there any equity in the property? You are allowed to deduct 10% for selling costs.

www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Own-other-property

www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/14940/#70661[/quote]
I was thinking the same thing. 16k is the absolute limit for capital in UC which I would think makes it very unlikely to own and rent out a second property while on UC.

Another thing, did you declare your rental property to the DWP when you did your UC application?

Ilovesooty, no I haven't been told that but they called me for a compliance interview and I told them I wasn't sure what I declared but that I wasn't breaking even as I had a lot of outgoings, in terms of bills and mortgages and I hadn't worked for a while due to illness.

Karenetta, thanks.

Preeeettyprettygood, thanks. Will they agree to a payment plan without investigation?

Thanks, ToomanyPJs. I will check the links out.

No problem. Before you have your interview with the solicitor try to put together a timeline of events. Print or screenshot your UC journal and payment history. Look through your phone records and screenshot accordingly. Try to remember what happened exactly at each event, what they said, what you said etc. Can you access your original claim form? Not sure if you can with UC.

£9k is in the region where they can consider prosecution but it doesn't sound like there are aggravating factors eg you're not part of an organised fraud network etc. Mitigating factors would be if you were misinformed/given unclear information. They can listen to phone calls though so don't lie!

Also there are shit loads of overpayments rn because they rushed a load of claims through during pandemic/furlough etc. This is good news for you because they can't prosecute everyone also there's a higher chance they didn't carry out proper checks or advise you properly especially given that your claim is not straightforward.

But talk to a solicitor! Not to them. Not yet, at least.

I am unsure. But I declared it with the SA team.

Nobody can tell you what action they will take, but common sense says to be prepared for tue reality that neglecting to mention a whole extra residential property might be treated more severely than forgetting to declare waitressing tips, and that £9000 overpayment might be treated more severely than £900 or £90.

You really do need legal advice.

I seem to remember that compliance interviews are taped and conducted under caution. You can’t just ring the debt management office and negotiate if you’ve been called to a compliance interview.

Prepare properly FGS.

Also, bear in mind that if you offer to repay straightaway this has implications re liability. Tell them what you need to in order to answer questions. And then stop talking/writing. Less is more!

But OP, the rental income isn't classed as income. It is classed as capital yielding income, which is treated as capital for universal credit purposes. But as you say you were barely breaking even so it's not like you've been accruing lots of capital under UC. The part I'd be concerned about is how much equity you have as that affects your UC claim. Any capital between 6k-16k is reduced and after 16k you are not entitled to a claim. This would include equity in your second property plus any savings etc.

Bebarkered, thanks. I had a phone interview already. When I filled out the form I dont recall seeing anything about rental income. Unsure whether they asked about the properties.