Victim of benefit fraud

The_Kurgan

Hi all, 
Been a long time since I've been on here. I was wondering if anyone with any nous could help me out. I've been the victim of benefit fraud and the DWP have now set up a direct earnings attachment to reclaim money from my wages that I don't owe. 
The first I knew about this was when receiving a letter last month from the DWP's Debt Management Centre stating I owed a large sum of money for a UC advance. Alarm bells rang immediately, so I then began a tedious exchange of phone calls between the debt centre and universal credit to try to get to the bottom of this. To no avail. Typically, no one was particularly interested nor concerned. I managed to get some details of where the money had gone, but obviously nothing of any real use due to data protection. The irony! I was told I need to call benefit fraud hotline (a misnomer!) but, guess what? It's closed due to coronavirus! I'm sick of hearing this excuse! I was then told to file a report online. But you can only snitch on people on there, not report that you are actually the victim here. All incredibly frustrating!
Now comes the letter that they going to start deductions from my wages. I was livid! More tedious phone calls to be told "sorry, there's nothing we can do".
I am at the end of my tether and really don't know what to do. I come here as a kind of last resort, maybe to see if anyone else has had this as I know it's not an isolated incident. The only options I can see are maybe going to a national newspaper like I know one lady has done, or writing a letter to the benefit fraud department and sending it recorded delivery and see where that gets me. Failing that, just drive into nearest river and have done with it all. 
Apologies if this is in the wrong place too, there's no specific place I could find for this situation.
Thanks for reading. 

calcotti

I would try contacting your MP.

elsien

There was something about this in the paper the other day, due to the minimal checks being carried out at the moment. 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/money/2020/nov/14/universal-credit-fraud-scam
Might be worth contacting the paper to see if they can help you as well. 

Or as Calcotti says, your MP. Or both, 

[Deleted User]

Yes I got told nothing can be done (I genuinely owed money which the DWP were not in any hurry to get (March to May I spent trying to get the DWP's attention) then suddenly hit with AOE with nothing else in the lead up too. Just simply told it was to late, nothing else could be done, but we'll apply hardship. (it really has been the only saving grace or so I hoped) Sadly they don't brother checking into the Employers they look to send these delightful knee jerk and public washing orders into - the first payment I had more taken out then then what was given over to them in the first month. The second month just forgotten about until I paid and I will bet nothing has happened in writing. I am seriously complentating paying the whole balance off and sending a letter recorded and then having to pursue my Employer for the missing money who also wanted to insist it was to late, as I really cannot bear to end up paying over the odds for a mistake made by DWP in the first instance by continuing with a farcical attachment of earnings. Everytime I have to deal with this situation I just encounter finding out more bad stuff so I'm sorry for your plight.

tacpot12

The DWP is out of line here, assuming they have no evidence that you have received the money.

Your situation is quite common, there has been a great deal of fraud with UC advanced payments, which makes it disturbing that there is no clear guidance from anywhere as to what to do if you are the victim of this and are being required to repay money. (This could one part of a complaint to your MP). 

Normally benefit decisions would be "appealed" via a Mandatory Reconsideration request and then an Appeal to HMCTS.  In the absence of any other advice or guidance, I would write a letter requesting a Mandatory Reconsideration of the DWP decision to make you repay this money. I would mention in the letter all the information that proves the money was not received by yourself, and tell them you will appeal to HMCTS if they decide to continue with making you repay the money. 
If that fails, then make an Appeal using a SSCS1 form. It may be necessary to do all of this to reverse the decision that you should pay; once you have this decision, any money the DWP have taken from you should be refunded. 

It will help you if you have all the details that were used to claim UC including the home address and the bank account that the money was paid to. So you should make a subject access request using the process described here: Request your personal information from the Department for Work and Pensions - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
You need to show how much information was wrong. Every item of incorrect information is evidence that you did not perpetrate the fraud. Be aware that you are trying to prove a negative, which is hard, but you can get your credit reports to show the bank accounts you hold. If you know the bank when the money was paid to, you can write to them - make another subject access request - if the bank won't release information to you because you are not the account holder, this is more evidence that you have not received the money. 

I would complain to the DWP about the lack of service (phone line being closed) and the unsuitability of the Online form. They should be making a better job of allowing you to fight this. If your complaint doesn't result in a commitment to improve things, there are ways of escalating the complaint. Google will provide the answer here. Note that it will take a considerable time to improve the Online form, but what can be done in the short term is a commitment to improve. 

If you have any influence with your employer, you could ask them to hold off making the attachment of earnings while you try to sort this out. It will put them at risk of a fine, but their defence is that the attachment was incorrect and that the DWP were mis-handling the case. I very much doubt your employer will want to get involved unless you have influence over the leadership team.

Please let us know how you get on, as it could benefit many other people.  

poppy12345

Deleted User said:

Yes I got told nothing can be done (I genuinely owed money which the DWP were not in any hurry to get (March to May I spent trying to get the DWP's attention) then suddenly hit with AOE with nothing else in the lead up too. Just simply told it was to late, nothing else could be done, but we'll apply hardship. (it really has been the only saving grace or so I hoped) Sadly they don't brother checking into the Employers they look to send these delightful knee jerk and public washing orders into - the first payment I had more taken out then then what was given over to them in the first month. The second month just forgotten about until I paid and I will bet nothing has happened in writing. I am seriously complentating paying the whole balance off and sending a letter recorded and then having to pursue my Employer for the missing money who also wanted to insist it was to late, as I really cannot bear to end up paying over the odds for a mistake made by DWP in the first instance by continuing with a farcical attachment of earnings. Everytime I have to deal with this situation I just encounter finding out more bad stuff so I'm sorry for your plight.

Your story is totally different to the OP. You owed the money but the OP doesn't owe them anything.

tacpot12

You might also contact you locals Citizens Advice for advice, and if you have Home Insurance, check whether you have Legal Expenses cover. Our insurer might pay to represent you at the Tribunal, and so under the terms of your policy you need to let them know as soon as there is a possibility that you might need their assistance. 

Sky_

I'd contact the police and file a report of fraud--surely benefit fraud (as described by the OP) is a form of identity theft!

Additionally, the onus should be on the DWP to prove that you owe the money so I'd also consider suing them for wrongful deduction of wages or something along those lines, if they do manage to claim any money from you via an AOE.

The_Kurgan

Sky_ said:

I'd contact the police and file a report of fraud--surely benefit fraud (as described by the OP) is a form of identity theft!

Additionally, the onus should be on the DWP to prove that you owe the money so I'd also consider suing them for wrongful deduction of wages or something along those lines, if they do manage to claim any money from you via an AOE.

I contacted action fraud after I received the first letter. The lady with whom I spoke to was helpful but, unfortunately, identity theft isn't a recordable crime. This I found out after filling out their form to file a fraud claim.
Whilst I agree, the onus should  be on the DWP to prove that I owe this money, according to them I do and that's all they care about. As soon as I mentioned fraud they should be investigating it but that requires actual work doesn't it. 

calcotti

OP, you are to alone https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48941661. I do think contacting your MP is worth a go, although i recognise that the help you get may depend on the quality of your MP.

The_Kurgan

tacpot12 
Thank you for your advice and input. 
I have no names or addresses for this person, I can only assume that my details have been stolen or hacked from somewhere and that's what they have used, hence why letters are coming to me. I have a sort code and last four digits of the account it was paid into (Monzo) which I have never had any affiliation with. They were also kind enough to give me their payment reference number and a BACS transfer number. I'm not sure how much of this will help my cause, but I shall mention this in each correspondence going forward.
It all seems that this department is very lapse on security. Where is the validation process and what documents, if any, are being asked for in relation to a fraudsters identity. 
I'm quite literally beside myself as I'm very cautious about the information I have available online or anywhere, for that matter. I've checked my credit file and, at present, there is nothing untoward, thankfully. 
I have spoken to my employer who are happy to withhold any payments for as long as they can but I understand they are legally required to pay as requested. I am thankful for their understanding. 
I wonder if anyone can point me towards a good template for a letter to an official. I consider myself to be reasonably articulate, but I'd like something solid, to the point that keeps me on tangent. 
Thanks again.