Benefit Fraud - interview under caution

topaztiger1983

I had one of these a few years back, at JCP, as I was working and claiming JSA, I went to the interview & admitted that I did it & basically got a slap on the wrist & told not to do it again or it would be more severe (prison & fine) next time, needless to say I have not done it again

If you admit it they usually go easy on you, especially if it was a first offence & an honest mistake

matilda.cs

topaztiger1983 wrote: »

I had one of these a few years back, at JCP, as I was working and claiming JSA, I went to the interview & admitted that I did it & basically got a slap on the wrist & told not to do it again or it would be more severe (prison & fine) next time, needless to say I have not done it again

If you admit it they usually go easy on you, especially if it was a first offence & an honest mistake

Yeah, don't do this^

At the worst, accept the letter wasn't received, tell them you're sorry this happened, and reiterate that you're happy to return any over payment.

I might be cynical, but sending a letter is a bit....unlikely?

topaztiger1983

If they have evidence that he did it and he don't have any evidence that he did do it, then surely they will go easier on him if he admits he was wrong the evidence againt him is unfortunately all they need, yes sending a letter was a bit silly, always take stuff in to HB & get a receipt, why did you wait 9 days to tell them anyway, should have told them straight away really

lost_for_words

Also, Check your bank statements and that way you can see whats going in and out. I have only just started checking mine everyday to keep ahead of my self. Because you might think you only have 50 left in your account so you go and check your balance first and you see something like 130 and you dont check to make sure all direct debits have gone out. You then draw out 100 and the next day your balance is in arrears. If you get what I mean.

geoffken

No
Have not got a clue

Horseunderwater

What that poster means is know when all direct debits will hit your account, Then take that total off your bank statement balance as that is not your money. Once all of those have gone out & any other bills not paid with a DD are settled, then you can buy food etc & then only if credit left after that can you spend on yourself. I use MS office email calander to do mine. The debits are in orange & the credits are in yellow. (my choice) From that I know what I might need to pull out from savings, to cover mortgage until next credit, where I replace savings.

dippy3103

topaztiger1983 wrote: »

If you admit it they usually go easy on you, especially if it was a first offence & an honest mistake

If you accept responsibility for your actions it does go in your favour.

However it's not that simple, the o/p states they sent a letter in & it appears to have gone astray.

tomb50

cant-take-no-more wrote: »

as they had been informed that my wife was indeed working.

Back of my mind, my feeling is that this might be the OP's first problem, assuming it wasn't the OP or his wife who informed DWP.

As another poster has already pointed out, the OP was aware he was being overpaid, hence his letter to DWP.

Given that, what has happened to the, estimated?, overpayments . If they are still in his bank account, he could argue that he was waiting for DWP to respond to his letter, and simply repay any overpayment.

If he's spent the money, mouthed off about it to all and sundry and someone's reported him to DWP, then 6/8weeks overpayments can't be too much to repay...

(Just from my own very limited experience of dealing with DWP, getting any response from them is a long, drawn out affair. Receiving an IUC letter as a first response suggests there might be more to this than the OP is stating.

dippy3103

tomb50 wrote: »

Back of my mind, my feeling is that this might be the OP's first problem, assuming it wasn't the OP or his wife who informed DWP.

As another poster has already pointed out, the OP was aware he was being overpaid, hence his letter to DWP.

Given that, what has happened to the, estimated?, overpayments . If they are still in his bank account, he could argue that he was waiting for DWP to respond to his letter, and simply repay any overpayment.

If he's spent the money, mouthed off about it to all and sundry and someone's reported him to DWP, then 6/8weeks overpayments can't be too much to repay...

(Just from my own very limited experience of dealing with DWP, getting any response from them is a long, drawn out affair. Receiving an IUC letter as a first response suggests there might be more to this than the OP is stating.

It's possible that the council were informed by data matching.

If the o/p hasn't done so already I'd suggest that he takes bank statements etc along to the interview. The quicker he gives the council what they need to do their calculations the quicker he will know what the outcome is

tomb50

dippy3103 wrote: »

It's possible that the council were informed by data matching.

If the o/p hasn't done so already I'd suggest that he takes bank statements etc along to the interview. The quicker he gives the council what they need to do their calculations the quicker he will know what the outcome is

dippy

As a fairly new but regular lurker on MSE I of course recognise that almost all of the regulars on here, such as yourself, know much more than I do about how the system works.

I found myself in a similar situation as the OP regarding overpayments. However I dealt with it very differently to the OP.

If you're going to quote one of my posts, in full, in one of your posts can you at least explain why you have done so.