I owe UC a lot of money by recieving housing benefit I didn’t realise I was still getting

[Sunshine225]

So i was so poorly during my pregnancy with Hyperemisis. Then when I had my daughter I had a c section and have been struggling with my mental health due to illness during pregnancy and then continuing to have PPD. I didn’t realise I hadn’t changed my address (moved out January this year) and have been getting housing benefit for my old rented property. I have moved in with the father of my child’s dad as I had nowhere else to go and now I’m scared I’m going to get prosecuted for fraud. I have found this overpayment out and going to inform them and give them all the evidence to prove I didn’t realise and I’m so worried about the outcome. Has this happened to anyone else?

It's actually not easy to misunderstand the payments. Here's mine.

here

If you check the account statements it's clear. OP said she hasn't been checking her statements so wouldn't have seen that.

I don't think there's any evidence you can provide that will excuse you from having told them the change the very day you moved out, or even before. They will make you pay all of it back for sure. But in a manageable way hopefully.

Have you spent all the HB money? If so then it's going to be difficult to allege you didn't realise you had it. If it went to LL then they hopefully should give it back as they weren't entitled to it.

For some reason you quite literally can’t tell them about a change a day before it happens. I’m quite a forgetful person and have tried just to get it over and done with but you cant

Well most on UC struggle so no one will believe you didn’t know. So obviously you wouldn’t have spent it so you can just pay it back.

You aren’t going to be able to scarper when the questions getting tough Op in RL from the DWP OP!!

This. You must have been pretty well off if you didn't need to check a bank statement.

Just come clean and repay the money.

Is this the benefit fraud that the majority of mumsnet insists doesn't exist?

I do not understand how a person that is struggling for money doesn't realise they are receiving hundreds of pounds extra every month. It's just not possible.

Presumably she’s checked her own bank account.

This will be many hundreds

Well yes. But presumably she (wrongly) assumed that's how much UC she was entitled to. Like my friend did.

We are talking many many hundreds of pounds

You will have to pay it back, but not all at once. You can come to a payment arrangement. You won't be prosecuted. I hope you're feeling better and enjoying the new addition to your family.

Ah ok. So you couldn't say, 'tomorrow I'm moving to xyz address and no longer need hb for abc address?' Seems a bit weird. But they do want you to tell them pretty instantaneously. So the day after?

Surely this is what will make it look intentional rather than accidental to the DWP; it looks odd in the extreme that changes resulting in increased payments were notified promptly, but changes resulting in lower payments were forgotten. Hopefully the OP has a good reason for this...

The fact that you have other stuff going on, mental health and breavement of my mum in my case so. It's no excuse in the eyes of benefits though I was told this when I was overpaid and had to pay back £1678.
It debt collection side was very helpful and we agreed a suitable repayment which was soon sorted out and paid over a year.

They're paying back an overpayment of 17k at 11GBP per month?!! It's no wonder 'the rich' are deserting the UK in their droves if this is how their hard earned taxes are being used. This 'overpayment' will take 129 years before it's repaid in full 129 YEARS!!!!! How many more like this and OP are there? The whole benefit system in the UK is an absolute disgrace and I just thank God we're overseas and none of our money is being used to support the feckless and the dishonest.

There is no way they will believe you didn't realise. What a con.

You can tell them at any time within the same assessment period. But any change applies to the whole assessment period, so if you have £900 rent for the month and move to a house where you have £0 rent during the month, you don't get any rent allowance for that entire month. Conversely, if you move from a place with £0 rent to a place with £900 per month right at the end of your assessment period, you'd be given the £900 even though you might only pay £100 for that month. It does cause issues.

However, in this situation, if the OP informed them soon after moving it would have been ok.

You are doing the right thing to report it now. I would also consider going to CAB both for advice on how to deal with overpayment and to make sure you are getting the benefits you should be on now. Did you report the birth of the baby?
Is the father of the baby also living at his dad’s with you? If so you may need to do a new claim as a household. Best to get it all sorted at once so you know where you are financially going forward.

If you’re moving house on the 5th you quite literally can’t change your circumstances on the 4th. It doesn’t want to hear about something until the day it happens. Even leaving a note in the journal they will just tell you to wait till the actual day

@Sunshine225

Where has the money gone? Previously, you were getting your UC top up of adult element, child element and housing benefit. You then paid your rent and had your UC left to live on. When you moved, you stopped paying rent. So you had a lot of extra money… you didn’t realise that?

You clearly told them you’d had a second child to get the money for that child… but you didn’t tell them you had moved?

Also, is it now a joint claim? You’ve moved in with your child’s father. You are now living with someone as though you are married and are no longer entitled to UC as a single parent. You need to make a joint claim. Have you done this? I don’t believe you told them about living with this man but didn’t update your address and rent details, so sounds like you’re still claiming as a single person?

It’s clear fraud. This isn’t accidental. It’s just fraud.

You're obliged to check. They say you commit to taking full account for what's in there and if something's wrong, even if they cause the error, it's on you to be the alerter. They make that your sole responsibility.