Job centre compliance officer

happy35

It will have been a routine interview, they have a criteria to target and base their interviews on this

A 6 month interview is quite common as is another at 12 months, they are looking for changes in your circs that you may have forgotten to report. these interview used to be called benefit review years ago and every customer was reviewed at least once a year

Dont worry about it, they will be conducting these interviews every day they are routine

If you were suspected of doing anything wrong you would be attending a fraud interview and not a compliance interview

DCFC79

If you have nothing to hide then what do you have to worry about, you told the truth and thats that.

No need to ask the JC whats going on, why waste your time and theirs,

Adereterial

flo-67 wrote: »

Im going to go down there tomorrow and tell them how they have made me feel and ask why and what is going on, i am 44 years old and have never been unemployed in my life so i find the whole process sickening, ( i served 20 years RN) its hard enough having to adjust to civvie street without all this crap. I am going to take all the papers i have that my ex submitted to social services telling them that i (wait for it and dont laugh) was running swinging parties and charging entry!!!!!!!! (ok you can laugh now) and show that social services interviewed me and the children and threw it out, plus i will take copies of the injunction that the police put on him for violence towards me and also the paper showing that my daughter is under the cocoon safety system for north devon police as he was physically abusing her (his ex fiance testified that he was) and hopefully they can give me some clarification and if he has reported me for whatever, then i can show this background evidence. The only other thing i can think of is that my divorce is going through and im entitled to 17 years of his pension and the courts have had that paid to a joint account by both my solicitor and his solicitor but i wont recieve that money officially till the divorce is finalised which will be months away ( £11000) and like i said its in a limbo account by both our solicitors.

IF someone has reported you, they will not tell you who that is.

These appointments are routine and random, you were just selected.

Elvisia

Hi - I just went through this and I found online the documents the team are given to deal with people. They are told to be "robust and challenging" in their approach, and that it may take several attempts before they get the correct answer. This is what it actually says in their documentation! You were interviewed by compliance who are NOT fraud, if they thought you had committed fraud then you would have been referred to them. I suspect you have come up on their computer either randomly, or because of something small, for example I had an ISA which I had declared, but I came up as being a case to look at by their big computer. It's very stressful but it doesn't sound like you have anything to worry about, and I wouldn't sit and try to work out scenarios, that is what I did and I got in a right state.

Also they can't check your bank accounts without you giving them statements, and then if they want to look into the accounts you have to sign a form giving them permission. Too many people think the JC lot are peering through people's accounts or sitting outside their houses watching who goes in and out, you've probably got two compliance officers for the whole of your region so they don't have time to play Miss Marple.

I know it's hard but put it to the back of your mind, and see what letter they send you. I got one telling me to send in my bank statements, which I had already given them at the meeting. On the same day I got an old outstanding tax bill from when I lived in France for nearly 5K which has completely cleared out my ISA, so that'll be fun and games if they ask why have I suddenly moved all my cash!!

cattie

Elvisia wrote: »

Also they can't check your bank accounts without you giving them statements, and then if they want to look into the accounts you have to sign a form giving them permission.
QUOTE]

This is not correct, the DWP have the powers to look into any bank accounts you might hold, even without your permission should they suspect you of having money you haven't declared. If any kind of fraud is suspected, a claimant might be asked to give permission for DWP to apply to the banks/building societies etc for statements or details of monies held, but if permission is withheld, they still have powers to access this information.

The tax office share data with DWP, so any savings accounts are usually on file & quite easily accessed.

ceecee1

Compliance officers cannot get access to bank accounts - only fraud investigators. This is not a fraud investigation as the OP has already been seen by the compliance team

flo-67

i have nothing to hide in my bank statements and they are there for them to see, but i am so angry at feeling like im a criminal when i have done nothing wrong and i feel action should be taken so they know what they are doing to people. I still dont understand why i was taken to a small room and made to do a statement about who lived with me and that i was not working and looking for work, and how they STATED about the sign on form and made sure i understood it, they made me feel like i was a criminal and under investigation. and yes i feel physically sick over it.

x4xy

Dear FLO, I fully understand your anger and upset. You have all the right to feel like that... I am afraid once on benefit you are subjected to all sorts of humiliations. It's the price you pay for being on benefit, they can ask you anytime or investigate anytime if they thinks they have a reason to do so. A lot of people out there attack all the time people on benefits ranting about having life easy, but the moment they are on benefit they'll realize how degrading and humiliating it all is. I have no wish whatsoever to get back or apply for any benefit, it's just stress and anxiety, it's just not worth it.

davefrombristol

I fully understand the way you feel and believe it might do you some good to photocopy piles of documents and leave it all onh file with a covering letter explaining how physically sick and humiliated they made you feel.

It might make some of these compliance officers realise that they are dealing with human beings with feelings and not animals.

I felt the same way a compliance officer quizzed me - after my ex wife started filling in forms saying that I receive money from her every week. The truth was that I've brought up our daughter for 8 years as a single parent father with not a single penny from her and far from receiving money from her, the opposite was occuring with her hastling me for money every time I took my daughter to see her, as she was a registered drug & alcohol addict.

So yes fight back hard and don't let these people intimidate you.

eskimo26

flo-67 wrote: »

but then then interview changed and then he treated me like i was in imbicile by explaining that the slip i sign fortnightly was a legal document and did i understand that!!

At this point it sounds like the interview went from the informal chatting and job help to the official declaration of facts which would explain the formal tone and wording, they have to do this i think to get official confirmation whether you are an out of work rocket scientist or someone that's not very bright.

Sounds like your husband has driven you to the brink of paranoid hysteria.