Just had a near death experience......Housing benefit

dippy3103

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

We send out review forms every 6 months to those that fail to declare changes in circumstances. If they complain about having to constantly complete forms we say that they have failed to declare increases in income in the past so we have to review to ensure that the circumstances are correct. Those that inform of changes can go 3 or 4 years or more without being reviewed.

Getting rid of review periods was a huge mistake IMHO.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

dippy3103 wrote: »

Getting rid of review periods was a huge mistake IMHO.

My own experience is probably 40% of working age claimants (excluding those on passported benefits) have failed to declare a change of circumstances and are being overpaid Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support. The majority of non Pension Credit pensioners who receive a Private Pension fail to declare an increase in their pensions.

Bring back annual reviews.

dippy3103

Yes. It's in everyone's interest to do so.

nannytone_2

my late father in law didnt realise he had to inform gousing benefit when his IIDB changed every april.
but they still do annual reviews so it was picked up within a few weeks, so no mahor overpayment was involved.
if they didnt do annual reviews it would never have come to light.
he informed them that his private pension had increased, but because IIDB is a benefit, he thought they would already know about it

Housing_Benefit_Officer

nannytone wrote: »

my late father in law didnt realise he had to inform gousing benefit when his IIDB changed every april.
but they still do annual reviews so it was picked up within a few weeks, so no mahor overpayment was involved.
if they didnt do annual reviews it would never have come to light.
he informed them that his private pension had increased, but because IIDB is a benefit, he thought they would already know about it

In the olden days benefits weren't automatically updated and we didn't have access to the DWP (DHSS) database -the annual review picked up any increases - now we are all joined up - some more than others - so tax credits, pension credits and all benefits (except child benefit) are automatically updated. The majority of claims where the claimant income is just state benefits is correct. (obviously those committing fraud won't be) Most overpayments are working claimants and pensions not on pension credit who fail to declare changes in income.

I would also say less than 1% of claims are being overpaid due to local authority errors (such as weekly wages being input as monthly or tax credits not being input) or DLA being input for both child and parent when only one gets it or capital not being input or 2nd properties not being included - but the overpayments due to LA errors count for 30%+ of the total overpayments created in any one year.

Viberduo

In this day and age its easy to honestly forget things or not know how the system works, in the past it would of been assumed to be just a honest mistake but in these days of mud thrown at each other people just often say its the persons own fault for not knowing the rules which is a shame really.

As a matter of interest a few years ago I was called in for a interview with a HB officer who had all my bank statements in front of hi, I am curious to how he could legally get them as he tried to accuse me of fraud saying I was getting DHP but had payments in and out quite regularly for Paypal so must of had own business running.

dippy3103

Viberduo wrote: »

In this day and age its easy to honestly forget things or not know how the system works, in the past it would of been assumed to be just a honest mistake but in these days of mud thrown at each other people just often say its the persons own fault for not knowing the rules which is a shame really.

As a matter of interest a few years ago I was called in for a interview with a HB officer who had all my bank statements in front of hi, I am curious to how he could legally get them as he tried to accuse me of fraud saying I was getting DHP but had payments in and out quite regularly for Paypal so must of had own business running.

It there is a fraud investigation there are some officers that are authorised officers to obtain information from banks and various other mainly financial organisations. These powers are tightly regulated and closely monitored - fishing trips are simply not permitted.

The powers were granted under the Social Security Fraud Act- 2001

Viberduo

dippy3103 wrote: »

It there is a fraud investigation there are some officers that are authorised officers to obtain information from banks and various other mainly financial organisations. These powers are tightly regulated and closely monitored - fishing trips are simply not permitted.

The powers were granted under the Social Security Fraud Act- 2001

Quite interesting as I had a few other bank accounts I never use but update the address when I move and he did not have those statements but do not know if that is because they had no activity or about 1 or 2 payments a year plus the statements were sent to my old address (as I still had access to it) then got my main bank account statements sent to my friends address(the one I was accused of fraud at as lived there temporarily before moving back to old place) so maybe they just got statements for the address that fraud was meant to happen not other address or the ones sent to old address had little activity.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Viberduo wrote: »

Quite interesting as I had a few other bank accounts I never use but update the address when I move and he did not have those statements but do not know if that is because they had no activity or about 1 or 2 payments a year plus the statements were sent to my old address (as I still had access to it) then got my main bank account statements sent to my friends address(the one I was accused of fraud at as lived there temporarily before moving back to old place) so maybe they just got statements for the address that fraud was meant to happen not other address or the ones sent to old address had little activity.

Fleabay share data (they were ordered)
on users with HMRC for tax purposes who in turn share date with the DWP for benefit fraud purposes. From the information from Fleabay details of bank accounts can be identified.

dippy3103

Viberduo wrote: »

Quite interesting as I had a few other bank accounts I never use but update the address when I move and he did not have those statements but do not know if that is because they had no activity or about 1 or 2 payments a year plus the statements were sent to my old address (as I still had access to it) then got my main bank account statements sent to my friends address(the one I was accused of fraud at as lived there temporarily before moving back to old place) so maybe they just got statements for the address that fraud was meant to happen not other address or the ones sent to old address had little activity.

Could be all sorts of reasons. They may have obtained the statements for the unused accounts but not discussed them with you as there was no activity.