Universal credit checking statements

[Noahsark4]

I have a question about universal credit and checking bank statements.

Today they have requested for me to give bank statements dating back to 4 months and child care statements for nursery bills etc.

Do they check all of our bank accounts or only the ones you declare? I’m asking as I have my normal RBS bank account which everything goes into but I also have a Monzo account which my sons father transfers money into which he owes me, for child maintenance and debt he accumulated on my credit card before we split. I have only declared my RBS for the meantime as this is my main bank account which I use and my wage etc is paid into it.

We have also booked a holiday that he transfers me for as he is coming as my son is only 2 years old and I’m nervous about travelling alone abroad with him and we did end on civil terms.

If they ask for my Monzo statements are they going to question thoroughly about the money I have been receiving from him?

oh really.. how can they see bank transfers? I didn’t realise that was a thing, I thought legally they would have to have permission or for you to send statements

Do they always call you or can it be resolved via the journal entries? They always contact me on there and that’s how I’ve submitting my documents it never mentioned a call on there but I’m presuming that could be after they’ve properly reviewed everything

I had to take out a co solidation loan which I told them about and explained amd showed what the outgoing amounts were. I was told its ok, just update with next month's statements showing where money has gone.

They stopped my payments for 2 months!!! Provided them the proof then proceeded to query an acct number that I didnt recognise..... it was a round up reward account. Total amount £2.57...... which then landed me in further debt. Would have been better saying nothing as it hit the account on x day and was gone the next day

They can only see what’s on the statements you send them. They don’t have access to your bank accounts and can’t see your bank transfers unless they’re on the statements you upload.

It will be a call, it’s part of the review process. Possibly more than one depending on whether you upload all the evidence requested before the first call or not. If you upload statements for all your accounts at the beginning it makes the process a lot easier and quicker.

I don’t understand this as loans aren’t classed as capital especially if they don’t stay in your account very long.

Someone has probably grassed you up for your holiday with your ex if you’re claiming to be a single parent.

No, someone hasn’t.

They can’t grass me up as I haven’t done anything wrong, we haven’t even been on holiday yet.. as someone said previously, for the stability of my child we’re allowed to go on holiday to look after our 2 year old together.. by the looks of it they are just doing review checks as someone else I know has also had the same request

Thank you. Everything is uploaded so I’ll wait to hear from them and go from there.. it is a bit daunting having it hanging over your head even though I know I’m not doing anything wrong I’m just dreading if they want every little detail or proof of what I’m saying

If people know you’re going they may have thought you are on the fiddle.

Unusual to holiday abroad with an ex and is one of the things DWP could look at if single status was ever questioned unfortunately. hopefully not in a shared room.

The OP has explained why she and an ex, with whom she ended on civil terms, are holidaying together.

If DWP/UC are looking at whether they're a couple/joint claim for benefit purposes the fact they're clearly two households would mean investigation doesn't get past first base.

Isn’t that the point though? There are some people that maintain households for financial benefit.

I'm a retired Welfare Rights person so hopefully know my stuff.

DWP guidance is here.

Your absolutely fine OP

if it was anything suspicious it’s would be the enhanced review team who work under fraud and compliance

these type of reviews are when something has flagged up
often it’s from savings accounts paying interest and HMRC gets notifications of this and then pass on to UC and they often want bank account statements going back several years

or someone’s grassed you up for living with a partners

best advice is to tell absolutely no one you get UC you never know who they may tell

and people at the moment are incredibly nasty to benefit claimants

Thank you for the advice :)

I would agree with highly unusual to holiday with an ex if a 2 year old child wasn’t in the equation

I get what you’re saying but just for clarification incase anyone is reading this in a similar situation..

I haven’t openly told people I claim UC as it isn’t their business. I’m a private person and keep myself to myself, I would never discuss or ask anyone about their finances. This is how I know no one has reported me for what they may think is me fiddling the system

I’d also like to clarify a few things after seeing your original comment before it was edited.
To be clear, my ex and I are civil for the sake of our child. Our child is, and always will be, our priority. As a first-time mum, I worry about a lot of things, and since having our child I’ve become much more anxious about life in general. My ex is fully aware of this.
We agreed that he would come on holiday for several reasons. The main one is that we can share the responsibility of caring for our child, allowing each of us to have some time to ourselves while the other spends quality time with them. Travelling with two adults is also much easier when it comes to managing luggage, getting from place to place, and dealing with any unexpected situations.
It also gives me peace of mind knowing there is a second set of eyes watching our child and that I have support if an emergency were to arise.
For anyone wondering, we will not be sharing a bed.
I understand that some people may find this arrangement unusual, but that often comes down to the type of relationship you have with an ex-partner, or whether you’ve ever been in a similar situation yourself.
It’s easy to say what you would or wouldn’t do in my position, but the reality is that you can’t truly know unless you’ve been in it yourself. Even if you have been in a similar situation, no two circumstances are exactly the same. Every co-parenting relationship is different, and a lot depends on the type of people involved, the level of mutual respect between them, and what works best for their child.
At the end of the day, this is a decision we made together as parents, based on what we feel is best for our child and what will make the holiday run as smoothly as possible for everyone involved.

As long as you can keep the proof you both had a room and paid for each room etc, then you’ll have nothing to concern yourself with.

it’s always best imo to keep that proof, same with big spending, keep the receipts of the sofa holiday as if anyone asks you can just dig it out of the file

receiing public funds comes with some obligation

when you started your claim with UC, did you have to upload a bank statement then? That used to be the case, but perhaps it’s changed