Possible benefit fraud ? Change of circumstances not declared

[Lilbitconfused]

Hello

I’m a newbie here so apologies if I’m posting in the wrong place. Need a bit of advice on what to do pls

I have a company of which I’ve been a director since 2014 but has become dormant since 2019 when I became fully employed (PAYE)

when covid hit, there was the risk of furlough and redundancy in my workplace and my head was all over the place being a single mum to two kids , I didn’t want to lose my source of income

so I went into a bit of trading to start something over a 4-6 month period late 2020-2021 which didn’t really end well. Sales were about £3000 over the period but costs were equally high as a new startup so my profit was roughly about 400 pounds

when my mental health stabilised when I scaled through the risk of redundancy (a very gruelling process at work) , I just gave up the trading and continued work

i have filed everything with companies house (yr end aug 2021) and also my self assessment this dec so nothing to hide

for some reason, it only just occurred to me I didn’t notify universal credit of these sales I did (still not sure if I’m meant to as it wasn’t actively throughout the year) . It only clicked when I was re-accepting my commitments in my journal that’s when it occurred to me

to be honest , I genuinely didn’t do this to hide anything.It was clearly an oversight if I’m meant to report it

do I report it to them now? I’m happy to pay back anything in case I’ve been overpaid but I don’t want to open a can of worms but then I don’t want to wait till later, get a letter that I’m going to be prosecuted

it was genuinely a honest mistake

thank you . My anxiety is through the roof

Your anxiety will only be helped by dealing with the issue, so yes I would be honest about any extra earnings you didn't declare
As you say worse case scenario will be paying anything they paid you that you weren't owed back over time

Thank you very much. Yes I’m happy to go ahead but I don’t know if what I would be owing would be above the £2000 threshold which is the basis for prosecution. Don’t even know how to work it out to be honest

the system is just so complicated 😟

You only declare your profit, not your turnover.

Thank you. That’s helpful .

Do you know what proof I need to show ( receipts etc) . Most were cash in hand but I have an excel spreadsheet where I was logging it . would this be enough ?

When you do your tax return and have your profit and expenses etc you can give them that. That will show your profit and they can adjust your UC accordingly.

You don't need to worry about how they do it - just about giving them the information so they can.

Thank you very much