To feel completely overwhelmed with a UC review

[Itsmeeee888]

I’m really really in a state of panic . Basically UC have asked for 3 years of bank statements from me by next week ! I have 4 children and life is stressful enough especially before Xmas . It seems they have info I had “inherited “ money from my mother when she died ( almost three years ago ) I did have money off my mum while she was dying as she was worried my step father would take it (10k) with this I bought a car . My mother died within a week of us finding out she had cancer, I was heavily pregnant , moving in to a council house and dealing with a very abusive partner . I spent most of my money on a car , carpets , furniture, white goods etc admittedly also a holiday . My brother has also been helping me over the few years financially ( one large amount towards items I needed then drips and drabs ) I’ve checked and yes a few months I may have gone over the 6k but once was from the money off mum and once off my insurance when my car got written off a year after I bought it . I know I should have declared it and I regret it now but I genuinely was in such a bad place . I suffer from severe panic disorder and anxiety and the thought of this call Monday is making me extremely anxious . Am i going to jail ? Will they cut my payments ? I can’t feed my kids etc . And it’s ruined my Xmas I can’t stop crying 😭 I can barely afford to live on the amount I get now without help from my dad and brother every month let alone lose lots of money on top of it ! And does it sound like I’ve been reported ? My ex always threats to report me

Don’t amend them by making notes on them as they won’t be accepted. You can write in your journal anything you need to say, or make notes for the questions they may ask during interview.

Okay that doesn’t sound too horrific 🙃 not how I thought anyway haha ! Thank you I feel better haha ! X

Aw no I was just going to print them off first for myself to go over and make notes ready for any questions they ask 😀

Did you get the request via letter or via your journal? You usually get 14 days to upload any evidence.

I had it Friday via my journal ( so the 5th ) but they want to talk to me on the 15th . They said I should have my statements “ideally “ in by then but not needed until the 18th? I’m confused why the interview is before the mandatory date of the statements? How can they ask me questions if they don’t have my statements to look at first ? So basically they want it within 10 days really 🤔

Local charity is the way to go your local food bank may have a team that deal with the ins and outs of benefits.
Your not going to prison.

Yes, life does get too much for all of us.
Every single one of us.
From what you say you've not deliberately tried to fleece the tax payer so I'm sure you'll be fine.
Just breath.

Unfortunately he lives about 7 hours away from me ! And has kids work etc . I don’t have any family nearby to help. 😣 they are all supportive but live away !

Thank you 🥰

Look OP, there are lot's of people trying to fleece the system. If you are genuine and open with them and just truthful then they won't want to drag you over the coals. If you made an error - which it doesn't sound like you have - just be transparent about it. I have regular audits and VAT inspections at work and I just accept that they will always find something BUT it is not deliberate on my part and it is normally accepted. Also, write yourself a list of what you think they might ask and what your response should be. Someone on here might be able to help. Getting your statements will also help you - review them carefully before you send them off so nothing is unexpected and you can explain every transaction. And lastly, don't panic.

Thank you ! I’ve never done anything like this so it’s a bit overwhelming. But yes I don’t think I’ve been over the savings amount that much and it wasn’t not declared on purpose - just life was pretty shit and my mind was all over the place between everything ! I’m going to try get them printed so I can make notes to explain things and that try to be prepared are calm as possible . 🫣 I’m a bit nervous as I have my toddler that day and have no one to watch him and he’s so noisy and adds to the stress but not much I can do about that

you aren’t going to prison 😂 there isn’t enough room in the prisons for even proper hard core criminals let alone a mum of for who owes the DWP 400 quid

if your really worried pop over to Reddit they have a really good benefit and works group ran by DWP / PiP workers and they are really really helpful

was the money paid into the account you get your UC in if so the reason they know is either you got some interest on it and HMRC.report this to UC

or the banks have started to report to the DWP any bank accounts that get UC payments and have more than 6k in them but I don’t think that starts till next year or

Or someone reported you but it’s unlikely to be this as it’s such a long time ago but I just saw you said you have a ex who threatens to do this so it could be that

you should be able to get PDF statements from your banks app / online statements
generally UC won’t accept screen shots of bank statements

i can get them from my banks Santander HSBC & TSB and pretty much most online banks do statements as PDF files

if it is a savings account they can be harder to get and you might have to get the original statements and use a scanner to save as a PDF file or drop the statements in to the job centre and let them do the work for you 😂

just download the period you require and save as a PDF

then upload to the links they will send you
I think it’s one uploads per link so you will have lots of links that you just need to uploads each statments to a link

if you can’t do this ask if you can take the statements into the job center and they will do it for you

If for some reason they think you might be vulnerable like mental health issues they will do a phone call first just to go through things with you like uploading to the links and explaining it’s PDF not screen shots blah blah.

then they do the review later so don’t worry about the phone call being first

it can take months to sort out so don’t worry if you haven’t heard anything for a while
they won’t stop your money this side of Christmas

but honestly it’s likely to be like someone else said roughly £400 payback and a £50 admin fine

Your brother , family , friends giving you money is absolutely fine your allowed to take gifts from family and friends so don’t worry about that
they may ask about random things like what was £4.36 in Tescos 😂

if you can you can put in your journal the exact dates you went over so they know where to look for it on the statements

but relax you aren’t going to prison and you won’t get a criminal record 😂
it will be a repayment maybe £5 -10 a week and a £50 admin penalty

You can download time periods . For ease id do Jan to current day 2025, again for 2024 and 2023. They will save to your phone as 3 documents and then ask UC for an upload link.

If they have cited inheritance, that suggests someone has reported you. And they are looking to see if the "capital" was spent adequately. As you spent it kn a car, house stuff I doubt there will be an issue over that. The issue is not declaring it. How long did it take to spend the money? Less than a month? More than 3 months? You may get some leeway given you suffered bereavement of a parent.

Try not to worry. They arent allowed to comment on your spending habits. Only that the capital was received and spent.

Oh my god thank you all so much I do feel a million times better ! I’ve definitely been over thinking this . I’m 100 percent sure I’ve been reported as it says “ inheritance “ and goes to the EXACT month my mum died . Yet it wasn’t technically inheritance as she hadn’t died when she sent it over to me ( so just looks like a transfer from her ) So who ever reported me would have known I got “left money “ and the date my mother died and not many people know that ! I find this a bit odd. As if it was randomly picked up from HMRC they would have no clue it was inherited or to assume it - it’s worded too specifically and given the exact dates etc ! But I do feel that I’ll feel much better once it’s all done and something I don’t have to worry about now

You are allowed to spend a sum of money on certain things without it being regarded as deprivation of assets. For example📧

A (reasonably priced) car
To settle debts, loans or credit cards
Essential household goods and repairs

Your OP mentioned moving into an unfurnished house where you would need such things as white goods, basic furniture which fit, carpets and so on. It would probably also cover removal expenses which can be expensive. 10K is not a lot of money when spent in this way.

I would visit CAB and they should help you make a case for having spent this money without it being deprivation of assets such that you could still claim benefit.

I’m glad you’ve got your brother and other family to support you OP, that’s great.

With regards to the interview, as with many things the anticipation is always the worst bit. Just look at it as something you’ve got to get done and then can move on from. I’m not an expert but it doesn’t sound like you’ve had an overpayment anyway (nothing is screaming deprivation of assets), so absolute worst case scenario is an overpayment that your family can help with.

Take this as a sign to organise your finances for 2026, you can probably find a budget spreadsheet online or make another post on here asking for help. Then if you come up for review again in future you’ll be ready

Good luck for the interview, these things are always so much worse in our heads than in reality!

Oh no I'm due to get a review soon and been in a very similar situation. I thought because the 6k was just like my mum giving me money for a car and then the payment went out the next month that it didn't matter. Why have they asked for 3 years? I thought it was 4 months 😖

Aw Im glad your feeling better OP
sounds like your ex reported you as the dates are specific and mention inheritance

people especially family and friends can be really horrible I wouldn’t tell anyone your getting UC even your closest trusted family and friends

it’s really not a lot - couple of hundred quid overpayments and normally a admin fine of £50 quid

You will be absolutely fine

They will want them to calculate overpayment thats all, anything above 6k they deduct £4 odd for every £250 per month. Nothing to stress over they will even allow a payment plan!

Standard review is 4 months
but in the OPs case they know she had an inheritance/ went over 6k 3 years ago so they want to go back to that point and check the amounts

Do you have receipts for the car etc? If done all in cash then they might flag it up as not declared.

I’ve had to do this a few times in the last year. 1) my partner sold his house to move in with me then buy a house together. The £145k was disregarded as being used for a house. 2) I got a £100k life insurance payout for critical illness. Declared everything and they allowed me to pay off mortgage, new bathroom and woodburner. 3) my partners car got written off so £10k in bank etc etc

as long as you declare EVERYTHING they are pretty good and understanding but you need to have proof of everything you spent the money on or it’s seen as deprivation of funds

Best thing to do now is go to your review, take all the paper work they require and be honest with them, they'll likely just make you repay all the overpayments back. You know you've done wrong so make sure you learn from this and do the right thing going forward.

They asked for three years as it was three years ago she died so they want to see what was spent and how it’s come in and gone out I think xx

I bought the car via bank transfer but I’m a bit worried as when I went to buy it I had to transfer the money to my partner at the times account for him to pay as there was something wrong with my phone at the time to enable to set up a new payment ( can’t really rember but think part of my screen wasn’t working ) but I can get the transfer info from his account as it went out instantly after I sent it to him to the lady I bought the car off ) 🫣

I spoke to a lady yesterday at the job centre - just my general monthly work related review ( as my son is now 2) and she just laughed at me when I said about jail 😂😂 so I do feel much better ! And you all have made me feel loads better thank you all so much !