Interview under caution, will it go further?

Anthillmob

you might have come up on what is called a datamatch file. each LA will refer any overpayments to their fraud dept depending on the size of the overpayment. where i work its over 3k [i think, i dont deal with these so im going back a few years before i went on maternity leave with my 3 year old]

basically its when the LA system runs against what is held by the DWP/inland revenue and any discrepencies are reported in the datamatch file.

the information regards the tax credits would then be double checked with the inland revenue tax credits office. if, as you say, you informed the council then they will have proof of you informing them of any changes and you will need to take this up with the inland revenue [imho, thats what i would do as they constantly recalculate claims]

good luck and please dont worry, its takes a lot to be hauled before the courts.

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK

Anthillmob wrote: »

you might have come up on what is called a datamatch file. each LA will refer any overpayments to their fraud dept depending on the size of the overpayment. where i work its over 3k [i think, i dont deal with these so im going back a few years before i went on maternity leave with my 3 year old]

basically its when the LA system runs against what is held by the DWP/inland revenue and any discrepencies are reported in the datamatch file.

the information regards the tax credits would then be double checked with the inland revenue tax credits office. if, as you say, you informed the council then they will have proof of you informing them of any changes and you will need to take this up with the inland revenue [imho, thats what i would do as they constantly recalculate claims]

good luck and please dont worry, its takes a lot to be hauled before the courts.

I thought they only did this if they have reason to suspect benefit fraud? Or do they now do it anyway? My local council stuffed up my sons council tax cos they lost him from their records. He has been a full time student since leaving school and I am now having to pay back council tax from 2005. I have given up sending the forms in from college and then uni as their incompetence to keep a file together with all the info is terrible. They only spotted their mistake when they sent me out a benefit check letter to update their records.

redmel1621

Anthillmob wrote: »

you might have come up on what is called a datamatch file. each LA will refer any overpayments to their fraud dept depending on the size of the overpayment. where i work its over 3k [i think, i dont deal with these so im going back a few years before i went on maternity leave with my 3 year old]

basically its when the LA system runs against what is held by the DWP/inland revenue and any discrepencies are reported in the datamatch file.

the information regards the tax credits would then be double checked with the inland revenue tax credits office. if, as you say, you informed the council then they will have proof of you informing them of any changes and you will need to take this up with the inland revenue [imho, thats what i would do as they constantly recalculate claims]

good luck and please dont worry, its takes a lot to be hauled before the courts.

Anthilmob - It has come to light that they did do a datamatch in May 2008...however, they obviously never acted on this, and I was unaware that anything was wrong until Sept/Oct 2008....which is when we went in voluntarily to give them details of our change in circumstances. They are claiming I have never given them any details, so they must have lost it somewhere!!!

The funny thing is the datamatch was apparantly done on May 12th, well I am sure I went in gave them our new tax credit award notice somewhere around the beginning May 2008 (as that is when I received it). I also had recieved a letter from them 7th June 2008 stating a revised benefit amount!! Why would they send me out a letter if I hadn't (as they claim) revised any info?? Looking back at the letter it hasn't used any updated figures, (however I didn't notice that at the time) but I have never been sent letters before stating revisions, if nothing has changed.

Also the overpayment is Maximum £1600 of which, maybe £200, has already been paid back...as I say they are taking just under £10 per week, since it came to light back in Oct 08.

Mel x

redmel1621

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK wrote: »

I thought they only did this if they have reason to suspect benefit fraud? Or do they now do it anyway? My local council stuffed up my sons council tax cos they lost him from their records. He has been a full time student since leaving school and I am now having to pay back council tax from 2005. I have given up sending the forms in from college and then uni as their incompetence to keep a file together with all the info is terrible. They only spotted their mistake when they sent me out a benefit check letter to update their records.

The man who I had the interview with said they now do this routinely!!

I wish our council did a benefit check as all this would have come to light a lot earlier. I have never tried to withhold information and they can see from our records we have always provided them with loads of info. I am just petrified that they are on a witch hunt and are going to try and twist everything into my fault, and say I have done it on purpose to claim extra benefit.

Whereas if we were trying to screw them we wouldn't have gone in and declared dh going to uni, and the £1000's he got in loans/grants etc...which has led to us receiving no CTB and barely any HB..but as I say, we would never do that!!

I am upset that it is going to take the entire remainder of my pregnancy to even hear whether they are going to take it further. I can't relax and it is all I can think about. Even though I know I haven't done anything wrong. Well except not checking their letters thoroughly, but I didn't realise I needed to do their job for them.

Mel x

welshsue

Hi
This happened to myself and dh. I was on IB and hubby was working, he got made redundant and went onto jsa. We then went onto housing/ council tax benefit. My husband was offered another job through the job centre but less hours and less money so we asked the benefits office about the housing and she said that because of the hours worked and income we would still be able to claim housing/council tax benefit.
We got her name and accepted this (we assumed they would know what they were talking about).
6 months later we received a letter asking us to attend a benefits review. We duly arrived and were called in individually and once in the room with 2 people and a police tape recorder they informed us we were under caution for benefit fraud. It transpired that the benefits office person had given us wrong information but as she had now left it was our word against theirs.
We offered to pay it back and a payment plan was put in place which we adhered to. Out of the blue we were summonsed to magistrates court.
We contacted the council legal department and they told us not to worry as it was a formality, you will end up as not guilty and you would pay between £30 - £50 court costs. We were assured there would be no custodial sentence on this.

We attended court and the magistrate informed us that we could be looking at 6 months in prison because of the fraud. After a long time in court, it was decided that we would have suspended sentences and we had to pay court costs of £500.00.
In essence we were left with criminal records when we felt we had done nothing wrong and the benefits office had messed up big time.

I don't wish to frighten you but be aware of this and take a legal representative to court with you (if you need to go). In future, I will be putting everything in writing to the benefits and keeping everything for many years.

redmel1621

welshsue - Thank You for your reply. Did you take a legal rep to court with you or did you just attend yourselves?? How long after the tape recorded session and payment plan agreement did you get summoned to court.

I am just trying to be prepared!!

On one hand I keep thinking, there is nothing they could possibly say that we have done intentionally and on the other I keep thinking are they going to try anyway.

I think it is disgraceful the way you were treated, I despise councils and the way they walk all over people and ruin their lives. If I get a criminal record it is really going to affect my future career as a teacher, which I have been studying hard for the last few years to acheive.

Mel x

welshsue

No we didnt take a legal rep as were assured by council legal rep that there was no need as it was just a formality and nothing would happen to us. worst case would be slap on wrist and court costs of approx £50.
I think from memory it was approx 6 months from taped session until we were in court.
I wouldn't worry about criminal record and teaching. I went to work in a school just after court and declared to the school this problem for the crb check. They said don't worry all they look at it crimes against children...

Hope that helps you, I know you are pregnant please try not to worry too much. I would get CAB involved and ask for them to attend court with you if its comes to that.

Good luck. Keep in touch and let us know what happens.
Take care
Sue x

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK

Is there any update on this I wondered how you were getting on RedMel and if everything is OK?

redmel1621

Hi

Sorry I haven't updated, this is what happened.

After phoning them on a weekly basis to find out if a decision had been made, I eventually got told on Friday 20th that the case was going to be looked at the very next week. On Monday 23rd Feb I got a call in the afternoon saying it had beeen looked at and they had decided not to pursue court but to offer me an alternative, an administration penalty, and if I came in on Tuesday they would explain it to me and I could sign the paperwork.

I went in and a very nice lady explained it all to me, although the figures didn't add up so I queried this and she didn't know the answer. basically I had effectively had 2 overpayments of £800(ish) each, one due to tax credits and one due to my wages....they were giving me a penalty on one lot of overpayments but not the other. She didn't seem to know much about the case, so I said I wanted it in writing that they were only giving me the penalty on one lot and that they wouldn't try to pursue me in the future in court for the other lot of overpayment.

She had to speak with the guy who's case it was and I was told I would get a call next morning from said man....which I did. He tried to convince me that the case had been looked at as a whole and only one overpayment was being pursued by them(the tax credit one) and the other had been finalised as no charges made....I still wanted something legal in writing, just in case.

So again he said he would speak to the legal department and find out if that was possible and get back to me by lunchtime wednesday! He in fact phoned me back an hour later, and said that was fine and would be ready and typed up for me to look at first thing in the morning (Thursday). I went in on Thursday and basically had the option to sign or not sign, I decided to sign and have the admin fee added to my payment plan, which was already in place. I felt a bit sick with myself for signing as I KNOW I WAS IN THE RIGHT. But the stress of it all hanging over my head, was upsetting me, also I was told I have a month to withdraw and decline the admin fee, So I have until the 26th of March to do so if I wish.

My circumstances are such that the council are taking the overpayment back of my current HB claim and therefore affectively payin gthemselves back, so I really couldn't care less at the moment, I just hate thefact that it almost makes me look guilty, when I am not, I just want an easy quite life at the moment and i'm not sure I am in the right frame of mind for a fight with them.

Mel x

SuziQ

Sometimes it is better to wipe your mouth and walk away,reducing your stress-especially when pregnant! As bad and frustrating as it is redmel I'm glad it wasn't worse and hope you can move on from this now.