Benefit Fraud interview with caution..help!

real1314

WhiteHorse wrote: »

Sadly, true. Never deal with the DWP over the telephone. Always in writing if you can.

I have known DWP staff lie without hesitation. Destroying documents is not unknown and altering notes is commonplace.

Do you actually have any evidence of what you've put or is it just a wild accusation without any foundation?

Like all places, there will be people who do things they should not do, it happens at Tesco, it happens at British Gas, it happens at National Express; but to suggest that such action is "commonplace" is ludicrous.

Mind you, if you agree with dogish that builders and golfers should claim DLA on the basis that they cannot walk, whilst other people on low incomes pay tax which these people steal, then I guess we all know what sort of person you are. :cool:

milfield

cassieB57 wrote: »

Milfield-a small but relevant point; it is work of 16 hours a week ON AVERAGE

Thanks Cassie.

cassieB57

cassieB57 wrote: »

most likely, someone who is 'on the ball' at the jobcentre or maybe the benefit delivery centre noticed that OP declared that she had started working, and that no declarations of work and earnings had ever been completed by her. Could have been uncovered at a review, or just by someone going through the claim.

With reference to whether she was asked if she had done any work; not everybody does, but I ALWAYS ask this every time; that way I never have to remember if I asked this person or that one. BUT I think the wording on the declaration form is that the customer 'has done no work unless I have told (the jobcentre) about it'. The OP could argue that she DID tell them about it (originally), therefore had misunderstood the requirement to declare any work or earnings every time she signed on.

I've double checked; what you sign is "since I last made a claim or signed a declaration....I have done no work, paid or unpaid, unless I have told you about it"...that means each and every time you sign the declaration you have to declare any work done since the last time you signed. There is no room for misunderstanding. (Just so you are aware of what you actually did sign, OP, so you are prepared)

loislane999

Looks like this thread is getting very much off the subject.
I signed on most of last year. I was doing occassional paid and unpaid work. this was brought up at my initial interview. From them on my signing card was literally 'flagged' and I was given a form each week to fill out about work I had done. The same should have happened with the OP.

I do feel that OP has been naive, but if one doesn't know the system, one can often get lulled int a false sense of security. Fill out the form, list down the hours and wages you have received since signing on, take your friend with you and be honest at the interview. tell them that you are nervous at the beginning. If you are unsure about any questions, say so. Don't guess and don't feel pressured into giving answers there and then that you are not sure of. It may be the case that you need to go away and find something out - tell them that.
Good luck.

dogfish12

Real: Do you have any real info about data cross matching. I would be very interested to read about ni/tax/ tax credits/jsa cross referencing.

dogfish12

Lois: its going off the subject in that the op cannot contribute until her interview on monday. I wish her good luck. Some on here want her to be hanged, drawn and quartered!!

Oldernotwiser

cassieB57 wrote: »

I've double checked; what you sign is "since I last made a claim or signed a declaration....I have done no work, paid or unpaid, unless I have told you about it"...that means each and every time you sign the declaration you have to declare any work done since the last time you signed. There is no room for misunderstanding. (Just so you are aware of what you actually did sign, OP, so you are prepared)

That is the crucial point and all that needs to be said on the subject; the OP has signed this statement every fortnight and it hasn't been true.

allen35

melbi_uk wrote: »

Apparently you can work under 16 hours a week and still sign on. Any work undertaken has to be declared to the JC.

My daughter just said she was explained everything about claiming JSA.

It is looking more and more like the OP knew what she was doing. :-(

I am sorry Mel but you have quoted information that was clearly wrong in this thread including talking about an appointee, getting a solicitor to speak on your behalf and then above, judging the OP as claiming JSA fraudulently because of what your daughter told you despite the OP on numerous ocassions stating otherwise.

You clearly, as stated yourself, you have no experience of the process of signing on for JSA but continued to ask questions and give an opinion/advice as though you were a WR specialist.

By all means give the OP moral support as you do on numerous ocassions but do refrain from giving advice when you are clearly unaware of what you are talking about, this could be seen as disrespectful.

dktreesea

cassieB57 wrote: »

I've double checked; what you sign is "since I last made a claim or signed a declaration....I have done no work, paid or unpaid, unless I have told you about it"...that means each and every time you sign the declaration you have to declare any work done since the last time you signed. There is no room for misunderstanding. (Just so you are aware of what you actually did sign, OP, so you are prepared)

Excuse me, but there is plenty of room for misunderstanding in that highlighted statement. The OP did just that, she told the DWP she was working part time. In this age of cross referencing, is it so unreasonable for the OP to expect that the DWP would have all the relevant information each week, from the HMRC or whoever collates these working records and allows the DWP to check the information (and don't imagine people are doing the checking - this is all computerised) - AND then, each fortnight, make the necessary adjustment to the job seekers allowance to reflect that change?

Also, given it is likely that the OP doesn't know the ins and outs of this particular benefit, if they are not used to getting it, isn't it also reasonable to think that working up to, on average, 16 hours a week, which is allowed under JSA rules, would therefore mean you only have to let them know you have a part time job and given them the relevant details, like workplace etc, and they would then make the necessary adjustments AND, if they didn't do anything and the JSA stayed the same, then it must be okay, because after all they had the relevant info, i.e. that the job seeker was working part time, and would be able to access the relevant data and adjust the JSA accordingly?

Plus, it's an average of 16 hours a week, so working 20 hours in one week wouldn't stop the JSA. But how would someone not used to claiming know over what period the average is calculated?

dktreesea

OP, all the best with your interview. I have been to one of these interviews with someone and I can completely understand how you got into this situation, because my friend didn't have a clue. Same kind of thing, he told them he worked from time to time, everything declared via the tax man, they had access to all of this via cross referencing, yet at no time prior to the interview did they ever adjust his jsa to reflect what they knew.

In his case he thought he could work up to 16 hours a week and still get the jsa, so he did just that. He fell out with a woman and she reported him, saying he was claiming jsa whilst working. I'm not sure what they then actually did in their investigation, but he got called in for an interview around two months later.

I would advise you to take someone with you and to tape the interview. Just put the tape recorder on the table and turn it on. I'm not sure nowadays if they have to give you a copy of the tape they make - someone more up to date on their procedures would know. Seriously, at the interview I was at there was jargon flying about left, right and centre. When one of the DWP guys in the interview said to him that he should have known the income disregard was only £x a week, I wanted to burst out laughing, because I could see from my friends face he had no idea what "income disregard" meant. Put it this way, even the DWP, who cautioned him at the beginning, must have realised a lot of it was a bit over his head. At one point my friend turned to me (in theory I was meant to be there for support but a lot of the time the DWP talked to me as well as him) and said he thought the people asking questions were really nosey.

The DWP should realise once and for all that benefits like JSA are quite complex and that people don't tend to know the ins and outs of it. For instance, I thought the disregard for income on the JSA was £20 a week for everyone. It's only from forums like this that I realised "that depends on....." Plus I thought this income was taken over a whole year, so if a person hadn't earned £1000 yet and weren't likely to over the whole year (e.g. a few days here and there and nothing in between for long stretches you didn't have to put anything on the form because your circumstances, i.e. "working and over a year expect to earn less than £1000" hadn't changed. Then there's income based and contribution based jsa, and the rules are different for each as regards your partner's income. Another girl I knew got caught like this. She was making a claim for contribution based jsa, and the DWP person said that her partner's income wasn't taken into account for this but it turned out she hadn't had enough contributions so it was changed to an income base claim. So all of a sudden her partner's earnings came into the equation but, because she thought his earnings didn't count she just left all that information out. She ended up having to pay back over £3,000.

So to all the people who are telling the OP that she "must have known she was doing the wrong thing, not declaring her income each time she signed on", I think you should reconsider your point of view.