Compliance officer interview

a_fierce_bad_rabbit

Hi, I am worried about someone who might be in trouble. She is 59 and in the ESA support group with disability and various other conditions.
She has been in this situation for over 20 years, I think, and already owned her own home.
At some point she received a pay off from her ex employer due to an accident at work, and later a small inheritance.

She has recently reached out to me asking for help. It seems she has also had an ISA for 10 years which now contains £10K. Her current account, where her ESA comes in also has an 11K in it. 
I had no idea about how much and did not think there was over 6K, which I know is the cut off point for claimants.

Last week she received a letter from a compliance officer to conduct a phone interview. So she asked me to look it up and what did it mean.
However, the news doesn't look good. I had previously thought it was just a regular ESA interview but the internet says no. The DWP have not contacted her for years to the best of my knowledge.
Apparently they are employed by the DWP to check if claimants are receiving more than they are entitled to and are obliged to ask to see bank details, etc.

Obviously I am concerned. She has some anxiety problems and has just shut down, won't explain how or why, and says she is not going to inform them about the ISA.
Am I right to think this is dangerous territory? She obviously can't suddenly draw it all out, and when a friend offered to hold it for her in his account she just didn't respond. I am assuming she is quite frightened.

Her telephone interview is next week. Any advice or info relating to this would be most welcome. 

poppy12345

It will depend on what her ESA claim is made up of. If it's all contributions based then savings will make no difference to that.

If any part of it is Income Related then for every £250 or part there of over £6,000 there's a £1/week deduction. For savings of more than £16,000 then entitlement to all means tested benefits will end.

If she's claiming council tax reduction then some local Authorities have a maximum savings limit of £6,000 before entitlement to CTR ends.

Any disability benefits she's claiming like PIP or DLA aren't means tested so they won't be affected.

It could just be a random interview, as they do those sometimes. However, if part of her ESA is Income Related then she needs to be honest and tell them what savings she has exactly.

Being honest is much better than keeping things from them. I don't advise her not to tell them about the ISA. If she gives the money to her friend then she will still be classed as having the money anyway because this will be seen as deprivation of capital.

If there's an overpayment this will need to be repaid back and there could be a small fine on top for not reporting the changes.

huckster

DWP may know that your friend has savings in excess of £6k , as part of Government anti-fraud measures, they do receive financial data.

So, if your friend does not reveal the savings they hold and DWP is aware your friend has not provided full disclosure, then may take things further, with a further interview.

DWP just want to recover any overpayment of benefits.  They don't want to take people to Court, if it can be avoided.

HillStreetBlues

The DWP will know  how much is in the ISA  as  the tax man an DWP do talk to each other.

I had a compliance visit a few years ago because I had over £6k in ISAs

It was 2008 just before interest rates  started to fall. I wanted to get a fixed rate ISA at 6% but my money was locked away in another ISA and knew by the time it matured the 6% would have gone.
So my father lent me some money till it matured then I would pay him back, which I did

When I had the compliance visit I explained all this, showed them all my current bank statements, said I was sorry and happily pay any overpayments back (the total of both ISAs were well under £16k).  I never heard from them or anything else about it.

The trouble I think your friend has, is they might not know about the money in the current account.
So instead of it being a £16 a week overpayment, it would be the full income based amount each week.

a_fierce_bad_rabbit

This is extremely helpful, thank you so much!
I 'think' it is contributions based ESA, so will have to double check.

poppy12345

a_fierce_bad_rabbit said:

This is extremely helpful, thank you so much!
I 'think' it is contributions based ESA, so will have to double check.

If she's receiving anymore than £129.50/week then it's likely to be at least part Income Related.

huckster

Compliance in this case probably picked it up as an income based benefit, where savings data has triggered a review action.

Advice is to ensure your friend takes part in the interview and provides a full disclosure.

a_fierce_bad_rabbit

thank you.

Candice-Marie

If they ask for bank statements they will see any sudden withdrawals or transfers to other accounts, so there is no point doing that.  Your friend is currently in ‘customer error’ territory but moving the money now is deliberately fraudulent and won’t do her any favours. (These aren’t technical terms, I’m just making the distinction).