Ok; During Covid 2020, my cousin inherited 60k after my Aunt/ her mum died. My cousin has MS and was at that time on full ESAand disability benefit as she is in a wheelchair. Her DH is her carer. My cousin told the DWP straight away, and they reduced her benefits to reflect the inheritance. Cousin and her husband spent £45k on getting disability alterations to their house and garden, and were told they could go back on partial benefits firstly when £16k was left, and again, would receive full benefits when they had under £6000 left. My cousin duly told the DWP when they had £15k left in November 2022. By March 2023, she had a little under £6k having bought a new front door, a new back gate and fence. The DWP made her submit all her bank statements from the time of the inheritance onward, until the point where she contacted them in 2022. They then did not return her to benefits, as they said, a decision maker had not conclusively, decided whether or not, there had been “deprivation of assets”on the inherited money. (for example, had she spent the money on a Caribbean holiday for several months, hidden some of the money, or had a blow out in Cartier one day) . She is still waiting to be returned to benefits as we speak. For 7 months she and her husband have been reliant on the food bank, and no heating, as the DWP are only just paying enough benefits to cover the mortgage. She has twice been told the DWP have “lost” the bank statements, and are still demanding statements up to the current date (December 2023). The DWP will not accept digital transfer of her statements, only photocopies, which, on 3 occasions she has now sent to the DWP via special delivery. Each time, the statements are shown to have been received, using Royal mail tracking, but the DWP deny they have received the statements, and said that my cousin must ask Royal Mail to deal with the issue as “it’s their fault”. My cousin calls the DWP every week, and is told “a decision maker will be in touch”. So now, after being completely honest with the DWP, 3 years after an inheritance, she and her husband are totally reliant on the food bank and family charity. My cousin is on anti anxiety meds, her husband has severe depression, they are struggling to live, just to exist. As a family, we are trying to help all we can, but times are hard for all of us …..They’ve contacted their MP, he told them he’d look into it, that was in April this year. This, it seems is what you get from the state after being honest with them. Whether OP has been scammed or otherwise, when you’ve had an inheritance of any kind, and receive benefits, you will be spanked VERY HARD. I’m convinced the DWP assume deprivation of asset in every case ! It doesn’t matter if you bought cryptocurrency and got scammed, or if you just lived a normal life, shopping at Asda, and being frugal….. the message here is……don’t expect your benefits back any time quickly. The State don’t care, if they did, there would be no homelessness, no poverty, no free school breakfast …but there is, isn’t there ?. I’ll leave you all to draw your own conclusions 😢😢😢😢😢