Have I committed fraud?

[Boxedin2431]

I am a single mum to three.

I have a UC review and bank statements are due.
I have three bank accounts and two I have not declared.
The two bank accounts I have not declared get child maintenance paid in from my children’s dads, respectively.
I have not had any other income apart from the maintenance and some help from my dad sometimes.
i transfer money between all three.
Two bank accounts are in my birth name, the third is in my middle name.

Am I in trouble when I declare them?

I only have UC, child benefit into the one I have declared.
i have child maintenance into one bank account and another child maintenance into the other bank account.

Shall I include 6 month statement for all three?

Child maintence is disregarded

You can disagree with the system
but the OP does not have to declare child maintenance as income

She won't, your children won't miss out FFS 🙄

RTFT!

I send/lend/give money on occasion to someone on UC.
This has never been a problem.
But you do need to declare all accounts.
There was talk of the government granting powers to search accounts recently, but I'm not sure what happened with that.

Sorry to disappoint you but she won't get into trouble because she hasn't committed fraud and has received the UC she's entitled to.

The powers were passed and are active as of last week via kings assent.
I’ve commented about it further back

You should declare them all. Maintenance is disregarded but just showing them one account with transfers in from your other two will look as though you are trying to hide a source of income. Share the information and explain it was just a mistake at the earliest opportunity.

I have. And while child maintenance might be disregarded I imagine they will want to take a close look at the OPs finances as most people would think operating three bank accounts under three different names is a bit questionable.

If you are getting the same amount of uc as you would of if you had declared everything properly in failing to see how its “fraud” or why anyone would care if you just explain you made a mistake.

google convicted benefits fraudsters and there’s always a specific amount they swindled. If you’ve swindled nothing it’s not fraud

Agreed, but if asked to provide all bank statements and income, whether exempt to your claim or not ~ all bank statements should be provided.
There is a declaration somewhere within UC to advise universal credit are enabled to contact banks to request all financial details of each of their clients ~ and they do opt to take this route from time to time; fully accept there is nothing in the other accounts to affect the claim which is why it makes sense for them to submit all information

HMRC have powers to search bank accounts. I have three bank accounts and haven’t claimed any benefits since the late 1990s. It’s not a crime to have more than one bank account.

Child Maintenance is disregarded as income for UC though - OP is absolutely correct - and having more than one bank account in different names is perfectly legal so long as there's no intention to defraud. OP has committed nothing more than an admin error which will be resolved when the DWP review the bank statements of her other two accounts and see that the only money going into them is CM payments from the children's fathers and the occasional gift from OP's dad.

Exactly this.

Yes, see @CockSpadget 's helpful update on the government bill at 16:51 on page 11. 😊

Yes just say you didnt think child maintenance was an issue and you like to have different accounts because you like to keep them separate for clarity as to what is what. It doesnt sound like you have hidden any income that would affect UC. But in future you should show all your accounts.

Nope. That's a gift and doesn't count

No, most people wouldn't think that. It's perfectly legal to have more than one bank account and many people do. It's even legal to open a bank account in a different name to your own, so long as there is no intention to defraud.
The DWP will look at the bank statements OP provides them for her other two bank accounts and once they've satisfied themselves that the only money being paid into them is child maintenance and the occasional gift from her dad that will be the end of it.

It is disregarded. I would give them a quick phone call and ask etc if you are really worried and then just declare everything and all accounts as it won't be counted anyway but may aswell say.

So what?

In your rush to trip over yourself to give the OP a kicking, you've missed the relevancy of this.

No savings = not hiding savings from the DWP, over a certain amount of savings would reduce your UC payments or stop them entirely. OP isn't saying she deserves benefits or qualifies because she has no savings, she's saying she's not hiding a big fat savings account balance from anyone.

As long as she's declaring all the income she has to declare, I don't know that they really care where you keep it, but it is better to let them know about all your bank accounts, yes.

If you have income that you know you should declare and you don't, you will get caught out, they can find out.

Declare all 3 but child maintenance is disregarded for UC so if that’s the only income going through the other 2 accounts you should be ok

I agree entirely!

Benefit bashers would undoubtedly trot out "ignorance of the law is no defence" though.

UC will eventually twig that you have 3 bank accounts as you put money from one to the other - just put all three bank account into the system now - rather than being investigated further down the line

This had actually never occurred to me! I opened a Monzo account this year purely to pay the kids pocket money, didn’t think to declare it! You won’t be the only one op, just let them know now you know, I’ll be doing the same 😬🤞

But surely if they suddenly stop paying the resident parent would then put in a claim for UC ? I’m sure the system could deal with it just as it does when UC payments vary depending on how much you have earned in a payment period, the amount of UC you receive is adjusted.