advice desperately needed self disclosure to the council tax benefit people

bundance

The declaration they typed out for me says I am the only occupant of (my hone address) . I live here on my own. I do not own or parltly own any land or property.

I had over 6000 from a year and three months


is it relavant that I signed a declaration saying I dont own a property, it is the fact that it mentions legal action that is worrying me.

mealone

bundance wrote: »

When I filled out my council tax application form I told them I had a mortgage.
Earlier this year they sent me a declaration which I foolishly didnt read properly, and it says I do not own any property. It warned me to read it properly, and says they may take legal action if information given is incorrect or incomplete.


Also for a short period of time in between june 06 and nov 07 I had more than the allowed £6000 savings.

If I go to the office on monday and self disclose, will they send me to prison, or will I just have to pay it back.

I have heard that they send pensioners to prison for not paying small amounts of council tax.

I am hysterical here with worry so would love some advice please.

The none disclosure of your personel pension and now more money than declared/allowed without benefit reduction in savings and for well over a year not a few weeks, what on earth have you been doing christine?

How was your illness at that stage? If this was down to your MH condition get the evidence from your care team to show that you were incaperble of managing your own affairs at that time or declare the full story with what ever evidence you have to prove it, you should be treated leanently if you hold your hands up and offer to pay back any benefit that you have been overpaid.

You wont go to prison and dont beat yourself up over this, your not the first and you wont be the last, worrying and beating yourself up wont help your MH problems which is why I would just get things sorted out ASAP, the CAB can help and give support to you to sort this out but I know you have problems with strangers and phones, do you have someone who can contact them and arrange an interview? Can you cope with an interview at the CAB? This wont go away but you do need adjustments due to your condition and you should make sure your council know this if you cant arrange the help you need, to protect yourself, if they think you are playing games it certainly wont help you.

bundance

mealone wrote: »

The none disclosure of your personel pension and now more money than declared/allowed without benefit reduction in savings and for well over a year not a few weeks, what on earth have you been doing christine?

How was your illness at that stage? If this was down to your MH condition get the evidence from your care team to show that you were incaperble of managing your own affairs at that time or declare the full story with what ever evidence you have to prove it, you should be treated leanently if you hold your hands up and offer to pay back any benefit that you have been overpaid.

You wont go to prison and dont beat yourself up over this, your not the first and you wont be the last, worrying and beating yourself up wont help your MH problems which is why I would just get things sorted out ASAP, the CAB can help and give support to you to sort this out but I know you have problems with strangers and phones, do you have someone who can contact them and arrange an interview? Can you cope with an interview at the CAB? This wont go away but you do need adjustments due to your condition and you should make sure your council know this if you cant arrange the help you need, to protect yourself, if they think you are playing games it certainly wont help you.

It was a genuine over sight and I am not playing games.
I cant get hold of my therapist for ages.

please reply

thanks

alwaysonthego_2

bundance wrote: »

It was a genuine over sight and I am not playing games.
I cant get hold of my therapist for ages.

please reply

thanks

She was not suggesting you was playing games, more that you should just be honest with them. You are not going to get any more reassurance then you have already have.

Don't you have an emergency CPN you can contact?

You could also contact Samaritans to talk to someone 08457 90 90 90

mealone

bundance wrote: »

It was a genuine over sight and I am not playing games.
I cant get hold of my therapist for ages.

please reply

thanks

Always has the handle of my post, I was saying admit to an innocent oversite, offer to pay any overpayment (it wont be much from your figures) so that they understand that you arnt playing games, not because you are/want to. And to make sure your MH is looked after and reasonable adjustments are made for you to access CAB or similar to protect yourself at the same time.

Your going to be ok, I cant say that in any other way or more often, I supose could fill a whole post with those five words but it would just mean the same, YOU WILL BE OK!

DVardysShadow

bundance wrote: »

In future, maybe I should swallow my pride and get a CAB officer to help me.

Best of both worlds: fill in your forms yourself,independently, but get the CAB to check them over?

bundance

alwaysonthego wrote: »

She was not suggesting you was playing games, more that you should just be honest with them. You are not going to get any more reassurance then you have already have.

Don't you have an emergency CPN you can contact?

You could also contact Samaritans to talk to someone 08457 90 90 90

I have a care coordinator but nobody out of hours
the samaritans are ok to listen to you, but they cant advixe.
I am being honest, I will self disclose these errors - surely that makes a difference

mealone

bundance wrote: »

I have a care coordinator but nobody out of hours
the samaritans are ok to listen to you, but they cant advixe.
I am being honest, I will self disclose these errors - surely that makes a difference

ofcourse it makes a diffrence, a huge difference when its a mistake and you want to put it right as soon as possible.

bundance

I used to work in an office but I kept making mistakes and loseing things.
I couldnt cope with the stress.
I am an artist really at heart.

I was sorting through my big box of forms and bills etc and this is when I came across all of these errors.
At first, being mentally ill, I just thought I was being paranoid, but no, these are real errors.

I am so appreciative of all of your replies on this thread, as I would not have lasted the weekend thinking i may go to prison.
Now I know I wont, and that I am prepared to pay the money owed, it makes a big difference to how I feel.

thanks again

dmg24

bundance, if you need any emotional help over the weekend, your out of hours GP service should be able to put you in touch with the local mental health team. If you call the usual number for your GP there will either be a message giving the relevant number, or it will put you straight through to someone.

Take care x