Does a 30-minute Universal Credit review call mean anything?

[Saddaughter999]

I’ve been selected for a Universal Credit review and have been given a 30-minute phone appointment.
I’ve seen people mentioning that their review calls were booked for 15 minutes, while others were given 60 minutes. Does anyone know what determines the length of the appointment?
Does a longer appointment mean they need to go through more information or that the review is more complicated? Or is it simply down to how much time the particular review agent has allocated?
I’m just curious because I’m wondering whether the 30-minute slot means anything about my particular review, or whether the appointment lengths are completely random.
TIA

Me too! Our local butcher takes cash only and our corner shop has ongoing issues with cards, so I always have cash.

Have they asked you to send bank statements? If not, this is just a commitment review. They just want to check your commitments are still up to date.

They did ask for 4 months statements.

The length of the call is pretty standard, they would not be able to book a shorter one. Sounds like just a formality and they don't really have additional questions. Feels horrible though I know!

I don't think its the same.

A review is very normal and random and I got the same message.

My sister was reported maliciously for living with someone (lie) and she got a very different letter saying they were looking into her claim as they had recieved information that she may be living with someone and not declaring it.

I think its just a normal review OP

I'm a retired accountant; this is exactly the sort of thing the Inland Revenue and the benefits people look at when doing their investigations.

They will know from checking millions of records that the expenditure on food shopping for the average family of x people on UC is around (for instance) the £400 - £600 per month mark (or whatever).

Somewhere around that figure is what they will expect to see coming out of a claimant's account and anything way outside that average will trigger their interest. If you only spent £80 that month on food shopping with your card, you must have bought more food than that. How did you pay for the rest of it? In cash? Where did that cash come from? That's just the type of anomaly they are looking for.

Every month is different regarding food shopping. One month I can spend £500, another only £50 if I have freezer stocked up, prepped lots of meals, kids stayed at Grandma, etc. You simply can't expect people spending the same amount every single month. November is always super frugal for us for example. And during December we'll probably spend double.

No it doesn't.
Asda sells more than groceries. Buying clothing or a TV there is going to skew the figures too.
The DWP do not care what you spend your money on.

As somebody said previously DWP don't care if you blow it all on Coke and Hookers.

However I don't think one can rule out the odd circumstance where spending might be sufficiently 'odd' that it raises questions.

In a standard review (which OP is having), they wont be cross checking OP's spending with what she claims.

If she had reported you, it wouldn’t have been that quick. Referrals for benefit fraud take months internally, a report from a member of the public would take at least 3-4 months to passed to the right department to conduct a review. It’ll be a coincidence.

A lot of people are living off credit cards for everyday expenses and then pay a chunk off the card when they get paid. See this frequently.

What a relief! Review done today,I was only asked about one transaction.