Performance Measurement Visit: my experience

stickgal

I hope this help some of you guys who get one of these letters thro the post.
Now, if you google this you come to the GOV website which states these visits can be unannounced as well as appointed, and they usually happen in your own home. It also states that they are random, and attached to Housing Benefit..... more about that in a bit.
Further google results will frighten the life out of you about how this department is some kind of Big Brother fraud thing to get you off benefits, and have quotas to reach....like an underground Fraud dept which skim around the correct DWP procedures used to investigate fraudulent claims cos they are not 'fraud officers'.

My situation: I claim esa (support), DLA (l/m), tax credits, child benefit, H/b & partial Ctb. That is my only income. I have 4 bank accounts all with the same institution as follows: 1 main account where my income comes in & bills go out; 1 for my 14year old daughter where she gives me her paper round money & I pay it in for her; 1 account which is my sisters' Funeral costs; 1 account to deal with my sisters' benefits as I am her DWP approved appointee. All accounts are in my name & for good reasons. All in all my accounts total £11,500 but thats for 3 people.
My experience with the PMV:The letter had lots of things I needed to have ready, including ID, income proof & bank statements. Also H/b award letter & tenancy. My appointment was between 10:30 am and 3pm.
The guy arrived at 10:30 am on the dot, refused a drink but was polite. He asked for ID first and which benefits I was claiming and for how long. He didnt ask for proof. He then asked for my bank statements which I gave him. He saw the four accounts and asked what they were for. I told him whos they were and why I needed them to be in my name. He then clarified that only 1, my main account was attributed to me and I said yes. He wrote down the balance of that account and asked me what date my child benefit was paid in. I said to look at the statement which he did & recorded that.
He asked who aside from me lives in the house (just my DD) and if I have worked or get income from any other sources (no).
He recorded this too.
He then asked if I knew what constituted a 'change of circumstances' reading these from the bottom of his form to make sure I understood.
He then asked me to read what he had written and sign the bottom which agrees that I understand I must inform DWP of any change of circumstances.
I asked if he was including DD account and he said if I wanted he would, so I said 'leave it'.
I signed the form & off he went.
That was 2 1/2 weeks ago and I have heard nowt. If I do, I'll repost.

Sorry its a long post but I lost many hours sleep before the appointment thinking they were investigating me from fraud. As for 'random' I'm not so sure; only 2 months after becoming my sisters' appointee (sudden income rise). A charity I know has dealt with 5 of these in the past 8 weeks and every one of them has had some kind of income increase, either a back pay, redundancy payout or gift. The charity suspect its something to do with inland rev but you decide.

NB Before anyone skims thro and thinks I have too much capital, I look after my daughter's money as her dear father has emptied 2 bank accounts using her birth certificate as ID and all her savings went.
Additionally my sis was given special circumstances so lots of DLA income. We have had to have her moved she was deemed by Social Services as being financially abused by her Hubby and his GF (nice huh?). Any accounts/ funds in her name will automatically go to her next of kin when she dies, and you can see he's not exactly going to make sure her funeral is a done deal....party time for him!

TELLIT01

Having checks made after a change of circumstances is not unusual and that would not really fall into the category of 'random check'. True, not all major change of circumstances result in checks but there are grounds for checks in that situation.
Truly random checks do also occur where no change has been reported and quite possibly no change has occurred. Random in those cases really does say what it says and there is no reason for anybody to be alarmed by such checks, unless they do have something they haven't reported.

stickgal

I do agree with you that if theres nothing to hide, then the PMV should be fine.
I simply posted as I had so much online 'misinformation' and scaremongering that I had 2 weeks with no sleep and stopped eating through what I had read. (Even that this dept were 'DWP Boot boys' which I dont know what that means but it shook me!!)
The man who came was nice, polite and courteous & if I get another one of these visits, I know what to expect rather than reading all the conspiracies online.