Housing benefit : Bank statement Vs cash point slip acceptance ?

portly1

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

Data Matching finds all accounts interest bearing or not.

Give over - no it doesn't.

It can only match data if data about the 'secret' account has been lodged by someone.

If it is a new 'secret' account then yes it could be shown on the credit file. The bank would have carried out a search and would have left a 'footprint'.

I have, in fact I have two, deposit accounts both with only a few pounds in that have never been disclosed - no need to, the total capital from all accounts has been kept just below £10,000.

The Barclays account has a middle name that I never use and have omitted my first name from it whilst the BOS account has been around for years with no activity other than £1 or so to keep it open every now and again.

According to Experian there is no mention of either account.
and as no interest arises HMRC won't have a clue either.

As I have said the matching is only as good as the info that is entered into the system.


Data sharing with credit reference agencies


Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are social security benefits that are administered by Local Authorities. The law allows the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to share information about its customers with Local Authorities for Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit purposes so that they can calculate the correct amount of benefit to pay. Local Authority staff with responsibility for administering Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit has electronic access to the DWP information they need for this purpose.

The law also allows DWP to data match Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit with information held by Credit Reference Agencies. Data matching is where information held on one computer system is compared electronically with information from one or more other computer systems. DWP may compare the information from the Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit system with that on systems used by the Credit Reference Agencies to identify possible fraud or error.

DWP currently has a contract with the Credit Reference Agency Experian to carry out data matching for each Local Authority to identify undeclared Living Together benefit fraud. The contract stipulates that no electronic ‘footprint’ will be left on individual customer’s credit accounts. This means that the data matching will not affect people’s credit ratings. The contract also specifies that Experian must not use the DWP data for any other purposes.

princessdon

Pretty much every bank account asks for NI numbers so its a rubbish database where you can't run a simple query based on NI number.

Coraline

What's the point/problem with of all of this?

You're not comfortable with strangers seeing your bank statement but comfortable with them knowing your bank account details to pay into it?

Just submit your bank account statements as asked and be done with it, this is a non-issue.

Twisted_Cherry

portly1 wrote: »

If anybody has these then it would be silly on their part to actually transfer money across knowing that it would be shown on the statement.

It would be far better if they withdrew it in cash and paid it in to the other account. There would be no need for them to leave the bank counter either.

All that would be shown on the disclosed account is a cash withdrawal or a cash deposit - source and reason unkown.

Some people are simply asking for trouble by doing what you suggest they may have done.

portly1 wrote: »

I was just explaining that if someone wanted to do what the poster suggested, they would be daft to do it that way.

Pardon? I did not suggest anything! I mealy pointed out that this is what people do and often they do not realise, or they try to hide accounts! Even if someone paid in cash in large deposits if there was a pattern on a bank statement a Housing Benefit Officer is likely to ask them what the deposits are for, in order to detect fraud!

Where in my post did I make a suggestion the OP should commit fraud!

I worked in Housing Benefits for over six years, and I have heard every excuse in the book for hidden accounts, accounts forgetting, large cash transactions... trust me if someone suspects fraud they will query it! I know I did on many occasions!

Now I suggest you re-read my original comment again!

To be honest if you are hiding accounts from the DWP whether there is money in them or not, you are in fact committing fraud!