Didnt declare savings

Tonytone11

Hello

hopefully somebody who knows the law here can help a little

what would happen if two pensioners who currently rent mistakenly forgot to decalre all of there savings eg said have 8k when actually 50k?

For the last few years they have been getting help with paying the rent etc from the goverment.

will they need to pay back £££ all in one go if caught?
If theyhave gifted there grand children X amount can goverment reclaim that gift?

They are very worried about a mistake they made on a form any help be apreciated.

colsten

Best ask on the Benefits forum http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=139

And google for Deprivation Of Assets

Also think of a better excuse than saying "I thought I had £8K in the bank. Then suddenly it was £50K".

colsten

Duplicate of http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5230437&highlight=

masonic

I see you've now deleted your thread from yesterday asking how you should best invest the £30k you recently acquired. Perhaps because it was connected to this situation?

As you were advised over on the benefits board, you should encourage your relatives to confess as I presume they don't want the risk of being convicted of benefit fraud hanging over them?

https://www.gov.uk/benefit-fraud

6022tivo

It happened to a friend of mine. They found out from the HMRC because of the tax paid from their savings account. This is made public to councils from the HMRC.

They were requested in, under caution and interviewed.

They recalculated her entitlement to the benefit and received bills going back for 6 years for a total of 18k.

Paid it, and all was forgotten.

I suggest you approach your council and admit the claim for benefit support was incorrect and reclaim with 50k being declared. They will probably be expected to pay back the illegally claimed benefits, which is only fair, as it should not have been paid to them in the first place.

They won't face prison though, so nothing to worry about.