Can anyone help Newbie - Customer Compliance Question ?

cashless_wonder

VeryScaredPerson started this on an ancient thread . . . Can anyone give them a hand ?

"Hi, I know it's been a while since you posted this, but I hope you're still around.
I seem to have gotten myself into some unexpected problems along these lines and could perhaps give me an idea of what to do.
I only claim JSA benefits ocassionally, i have a few health issues that limit the work I can do, but I try hard and get what I can, but sadly from time to time, i still have to resort to JSA when I find myself with no work. I had a recent patch in this way.
Just before my last JSA claim ceased, I received a letter from the Customer Compliance people about non-declaration of an Individual Savings Account during my time signing. It was an account that my grandmother insisted I open (with her money) in my name years ago.
Her idea was to keep putting bits of money in to accumilate over time so I could have enough money to start my own business in the near future, something I'm still hoping to do. The money wasn't for anything else, and I never used it for living expenses, everything I lived on came out of my meager bank account.
I never realy took the account that seriously as I never had any income of my own to put into it, and just forgot about it. I have memory problems, i should point out, where things are prone to being forgotten, or very badly mixed up, and I have no sense of time either, which is a constant problem for trying tell people about things that have happened.
Anyway, i never personally used the account, and I just forgot about it entirely at the point when I filled in the original JSA form (with difficulty, I don't do forms well), and honestly don't recall once thinking about it until this letter arrived.
The strange thing is that they have an account number for it listed on the letter, but it isn't the one for my account. I'm not sure what's happened here. Is it a mistake on thier part, or do they think I've got another account as well?
The letter asks to see my bank statements, proof of the individual Savings Account (with transactions, which only consists of my grandmother putting money in every now and then), and anything else I may have. It mentions nothing of an interview or being investigated for benefit fraud.
What should I do? I'm not on JSA anymore, and i dont' even know if the Individual Savings Account they've asked for details on is even the one I have. Should I go to them with the details of the one I do have, and run the risk of them possibly thinking I have two individual savings accounts, or just let them know that I dont have the one they think I do, and leave it at that? I don't want to rock the boat anymore than it already has been.
I do want to pay back what I might owe them, and get it all put right, I didn't intentionally mislead them. But I'm very scared about what might happen. When I hand the information in, will that mean I get accused of deliberate fraud and get arrested, or have to go court?
Some people may think that forgetting about an account is impossible, but i forget all sorts of things all the time, of both big and small importance. it's a big problem for me. "


Last edited by VeryScaredPerson; Today at 8:04 PM. Reason: forgot something

MrsManda

I think the best thing for them to do is to contact the DWP and ask them exactly what it is they require. VSP is not denying they have an undeclared account so she needs to clarify with the DWP what they want and arrange to repay any overpayments.

The original purpose of the ISA account is irrelevant. If someone claims any income based benefits (I presume from the post that the JSA was income based rather than contributions based) they have to declare any savings and if they have more than £6000 and less than £16,000 their benefit entitlement reduces on a sliding scale with no JSA payable if savings are over £16,000.

As VSP has health problems to do with memory etc... the DWP are hopefully going to be lenient and accept that it wasn't a deliberate attempt defraud.

I'd contact the DWP/the department who sent the letter and discuss the letter and the account and go from there.

McKneff

I wouldnt wory too much about it, they want to know things and the best advice I can give you is tell them the truth.
The account that they say you have you have no knowledge of

The account that you do have is account no. is xxx with a balance of xxx

I wouldnt slate you, my OH is in the same boat memory wise, so I can understand.
He has no knowledge of even our wedding day except that he was wearin some trendy shoes which had laces and hooks, absolutely nothing else, good job I do understand, I remember every single moment and it was 43 years ago (I was a child bride )
Good luck and let us know how you get on. Hope that helps a bit.
regards
nnie

VeryScaredPerson

i have real issues with my memory, but it's not constant forgetfullness.
My doctor says it's something to do with a form of dyslexia that I have, where things can go really blank or get mixed up all the time. Sometimes i'll forget simple words, or use the wrong word for something. Other times I can forget whole big important things. It's infuriating, and there doesn;t seem to be anythign I can do about it.

in this situation it's a real problem. The job centre know I have dyslexia, but I never mentioned my depression problem to them, and I dont think they'll accept my memory issues as true.

I feel rotten at doing this wrong, it's not me at all, I always try to do the right thing everywhere, I have something of an overactive concience I suppose. I can;t belive i'd do something this wrong without relaizing it.
My grandmother said when it was set-up that it didn;t have to be declared. I just took it at that and never thought anything of it afterwards. Trouble is, I know now from what I've recently read online, that what she meant was that it doesn't get declared for Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax. I misunderstood and thought she meant it was exempt from all forms of declaration. I've been so stupid, i should have checked. (incicentally I meant to put this all in the original post, but forgot. Thanks bad memory)

Anyway, I want to sort all this out and go to the job centre and everything, but I really am scared. I don't know if I can handle it.

thanks for the help everybody.

[Deleted User]

you may or may not want to tell us,but how much is in the account?
as mentioned above if at any time your TOTAL savings have been below £6000 then you have nothing to worry about,if they have then just answer the questions honestly and at the same time let them know your gp will confirm the memory problems you have

VeryScaredPerson

I dont do my accounts, I can't deal with bank statements (or forms of anykind). They're all still in the envelopes going back at least 18 months. It'll take me abit to sort through all this and sort it out. It is definately over £6000 with the Individual Savings Account though.
My life is so unstable from an economic standpoint that I always live like I'm on JobSeeker's Allowance, even when i'm working, so my bank account remains fairly stable. Only time I see what I have is when the cashpoint displays it. I've not exactly raked it in, but then again I've kept myself balanced for the most part, which is a small miracle all things considered.

Do you think that maybe a doctor's letter would be a good idea to help convince the Customer Compliance people about my issues?

dseventy

I appreciate that you might have "memory" problems, I just find it hard to believe that you can forget about £6000 worth of savings when you are skint and on JSA.

You state its for startting a business, but with memory problems and signing legal forms incorrectly, I think you need help with it.

Anyway, fess up come clean and pay it back.

D70

VeryScaredPerson

i dont follow you, but i always gave my bank accounts to the job centre as requested.
And my grnadmother looked afet the individual savings account, and did what she did there, i didn't look at it at all.
My memory is always at its worst when I'm stressed and scared, and I always have real problems when I have to sgin on. I can;t cope wth it well, and have on occasions in the past not claimed when I could have because of how I feel about it.
I never said I was skint, I said I always lived like I was. This is becuase work is so unpredicatable, and coming and going, that I couldn't keep track of my changing amonts of income, or taxes. I dont do accounts as I said becuase I just cant deal with them, so i keep living on the cheap. That way at least i know if I base my sepnding on what I can afford when I'm on JSA, then I should be okay to manage during no income of any kind periods as well, if that makes any sense. I dont think I've explained that well.

On a realted note, I was told that £16000 was the cut-off limit for savings with JSA? I need to look into this.

Anyway, as I already said, I do want to get this sorted, I just want to try and be sure that they can belive me. I'm very scared, and I can't help that.

Louise03

I know of someone who had a mega savings account (undisclosed) whilst claiming benefits. He has some mild learning difficuties. He wasn't taken to court, but his benefits were suspended and of course he had to pay it back.
As they obviously have some information on your account, honesty will definatley be the best policy.

dseventy

You don't have to justify it to me or anyone on here, just the DWP.

I just think it sounds wierd and my question is what a reasonable person would ask.

Like why was your grandmother put money into an account for a business when she must have known that you were on the dole, did she never think to ask, or you not to ask about the money.

Whilst you forgot about it and did not use it, you had the account.

The JSA money tapers from 6k to 16K.

D70q

Louise03

Also when you are interviewed I would not mention "starting your own business" as it contradicts you saying that you have problems with admin etc.