Being Investigated for Housing Benefit Fruad...what the?!

[brownio]

I was recently summoned for an interview under caution after Housing Benefit was overpaid to me, i stopped the interniew mid way as it seems to be something the Council wish to persue whan it was something i thought would be cleared up simply...has anyone else faced this? What the hell do you do next and where can i find free legal advice in Bristol?
Currently shocked and confused!!!

A computer would have flagged a portion a the population who were overpaid by a %- They just want to show they are tracking these things and get the scares out.

Ask them to put, in writeing, any conversation you have, be it one to one or on the phone, and keep them in a folder somwhere for when they harass you for some detail they failed to enter into their system.

Tell them the info they want, and keep repeating it every time they ask. Eventually they will get bored and tell you everything will be ok (Via a trees worth of paperwork most likely)

I fear its past that point, i attended the interview (which was recorded police style) and no formal charge was made as i stopped the interview when it got to the point i felt i needed a lawyer.
I agree, its a flagged up thing, and as im already paying back what i was overpaid, i cant see how i was fraudulent...they just conveniently dont have the 3 letters i sent them before the one they have recieved. Seems like sloppy admin to me...sadly i dont have a case file of all my phone calls and correspondance as they do. Me vs a whole Council law dept with no advice or even a full outline of what im being accused of!
Needless to say im losing sleep!

Any lawyers out there? Or people who have reached this stage?

But surely if you started repaying as soon as they overpayed you, what's the problem? I assume the overpayment was their error? And when you realised you started repaying?

You could contact your MP?

My BIL was accused of benefit fraud (he stopped living with his disabled father so stopped being eligible for carers' allowance, wrote to the council to tell them so and sent back the benefit book. Apparently someone kept on getting the benefit payments (dubious about whether this happened at all and in any event it wasn't him as he'd moved a hundred miles away from where it was supposedly happening). The council just would not listen to reason at all so in the end he wrote to his MP who sorted it all out.

Their accusation seems to be (though its not formally been put to me as that would be a charge and right now im under caution) that i deliberately didnt tell them i had moved house and was off benefits though id told them via letter, and all the other benefits people too who seems to have recieved the information, so i could keep getting money which happened for a few months until they 'recieved' my fourth letter which had a copy of the original letter attached. Im paying the money back and without my letters they would never have known...but they claim i didnt send the previous 3, or so i believe as they wont formally tell me and seem to just be gathering evidence for their case.
Yes its stupid i dint keep a record of the original letters and dates i sent them, but who expects this really? And i did keep a copy of the last letter i sent as i was getting really worried!!Im guilty until proven innocent it seems, which i cant prove...nice.

Think contacting the MP would be good, but i moved out of the area so who to contact really...excuse me while i go take a valium and cry a bit....

COntact your current MP -- again, that's what my BIL did. The old one can't deal with you because you're not his/her constituent any more. Some are more useful than others, though. The fact that all the other benefits people received the information should be a point in your favour.

How was the Housing Benefit paid, brownio? This may help prove your innocence.

If it was paid by cheque to a private landlord, or by credit to your rent account with a Housing Association or the Council, you could argue that you weren't aware the benefit was still being paid. And further, the landlord would have a responsibility to inform the council that you had moved.

If it was paid by cheque to you, then they will want to know why you continued to cash the cheques and probably how you got hold of them if you had moved away from the property.

Cheques for housing benefit are no longer given to tennants (which seems to cause these problems a lot) and it was paid into my bank account. At no point have i been asked to pay the whole sum back, so they have never even asked if i spent it or if i knew it was there.
I used to work for my old property management agent (it was a private rental and they dealt witht he property on behalf of the landlord, and she was contractually obliged to send the council notice of my move, which is a great point to flag up thanks stinkyfeet.

Sadly the advice i have seen online points to me needing a lawyer at this stage, but ill give the MP a go for sure

If you can show it's still sitting in your account and you haven't spent it, that will also be in your favour.

Do you know how much the overpayment is?

But yes, legal advice is a good idea.

On the contrary, they dont seem to care about the money, i offered to pay it all back and was told 'thats not the issue'.
Yeah i know the full amount as i advised them of this by letter every month they paid me it the money, which they of course deny any knowledge of.Up until last month.

Hopefully any lawyer i obtain will prevent any further lengthy jorneys and more days off in this ridiculous farce!

The legal aid website has been useful, in case anyone else is looking for help.

It sounds a ridiculous situation. Hope you can resolve it soon.

thank you stinkyfeet! im glad it sounds as dumb as it feels :)

Just want to say good luck. This is typical!!

Did you email each time the money arrived in your account when it shouldn't have? Or do you have copies of the letters you wrote?

But why did you not contact they straight away when you realised you were being paid money that you were not entitled to?

Surely any sensible person sends a letter Recorded / Special Delivery (& keeps a photocopy of the letter) in a case like this.

You don't say when you moved out or how much they have overpaid, but I would guess it's a 4 figure sum.

If I were you I would apologise for any misunderstanding, write a cheque out straight away for the full amount you owe - get a certified receipt from the official you give it to (after all you knew you were not entitled to the money so you won't have spent it) and get legal advice if they want to take it further. The fact that you used to work for the property management agent would mean that you should know the importance of keeping proper records & they might suspect them of being in collusion with you over the alleged fraud.

Also check you have not been overpaid any linked benefit, like council tax benefit and - if you have - be proactive about paying that back.

No i didnt email as i didnt have a computer at the time. Also they insist on this in writing.

I would love to say i was organised enough to ahve kept copies of the leters, but this is the one time i didnt...sloppy i guess but was moving house, new job etc lots of paperwork. I did write to them, which is the way the coucil ask for information regarding any change in situation, but their copies of the letter have been 'lost', hence the palaver. The fact is i didnt realise at first and then felt a letter would resolve it all. I was only ever sent a payment plan re repayment, and as i said, the money is not the issue in their eyes, after all i could have got it from other means by now if i was defrauding them right? I have already paid back the other benefit i was overpaid, as these have all taken time for them to calculate (esp child tax credit) so was worriesd id not been contacted re the housing benefit payments, by the third letter i was keeping more precise records and,typically, thats the one they contacted me after.

I see where youre coming from Lady Lapsang, but im a fallable human, and sloppy paperwork from a busy mum doesnt automatically mean fraud, and im looking fror advice from those who have been through this or can offer legal tips, not a lesson in hindsight or more accussations than im already, unfairly, facing. It would be nice for just someone to not assume i was guilty because ive been on benefits.

I had this with child benefit. When I moved abroad I wrote to them and requested they stop paying it. They continued. I wrote again. They continued. I wrote 4 times and sent recorded delivery and it was only when I sent the 5th letter enclosing copies of the previous ones that they finally stopped.

Hope you get it sorted ok

Curiousmomma, do you have experience of this?

Thanks Verity and Mumoverseas, im really wishing i had not gone to the interview...both as its made me incredibly worried and because it means i definately need a lawyer now. It was a process i am dreading repeating and hope some letters from a good lawyer will solve.
I considered the paying 30% exta route, but this seems an easy way of them recouping money for admin involved in what was their error. I did what i had to do, but as i now dont have swathes of paperwork and a trained fraud investigation department of my own, i cant prove it. I wonder how many people have paid this money just to avoid the stress and anxiety?
I really thought it would be a case of me saying 'look i informed everyone else, and you have the letter i wrote begging you to take the money back and i paid the bits everone else overpaid me and already made the first payment to you' and it would be over...naiive indeed. The onus is on me to prove myself innocent. The process seems very biased and not at all like criminal law process from what my police mate told me. Even my old landlord is not in trouble for not telling them i had moved, which he (in fact his property agent who handles the property) is obliged to do...perhaps they lost his letter too?

Anyway, off i go to the law centre on tuesday! Ill post some useful links later on if anyones reading this for advice on a similar situation.

the dwp changed my address and name on their computers with no input from me and then the housing benefit stopped too, they still have not a clue how my details were changed with no proof but hey ho!

I managed to find a lawyer who can take my case, but will have to pay through the nose as cant get legal aid...but feels worth it to clear this up now!

A useful contact was Community Legal Servies, whos number you can find through Google as it varies according to area.

I'll keep you posted...

Oh and i also want to say a big thank you to all the people who replied, it was a great comfort to me and helped get my head straight about it all. I just hope it does the same for anyone else facing this kind of thing!

www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk is also full of useful tips and free legal advice for beneftis and other consumer matters, i found it very helpful indeed.