Why are UC asking for my bank, premium bonds , PayPal statements !!!

mikey888

Hello everyone,  I am currently receiving both UC and also Carers Allowance .  In late September of this year I received a note in my UC Journal from the UC Claim Review centre in Wrexham stating they were reviewing my UC claim to make sure my payments are correct . They asked me to send an online copy of my 4 previous bank statements and also booked a telephone interview with one of their agents . After about 3 hours of trial and error ( I'm not very good with techy stuff ) I finally managed to send the statements.

In the subsequent phone interview in October   , they asked me very little about my bank statements but did ask about other savings .I duly informed them about my premium bonds savings ( my only other savings apart from my bank current account )  .

Then the interviewer asked if I held a PayPal account & whether I had any savings in this account .  I thus  confirmed that I did indeed hold a PayPal account but also confirmed that I did not hold any savings in this account , using it purely for online transactions. The interviewer then asked me to send last 4 months online copies of both my Premium Bonds account and my PayPal account

Can somebody inform what the hell is going on ? Do they suspect me of fraud or is this just a routine UC process. Or is this some kind of general UC payments crackdown by the newly elected Government? Its highly inconvenient to have go through all this whilst also caring and providing emotional support to an elderly relative who is in severe pain due to multiple health issues.  Finally , I should add that the interviewer stated that they were calling from a private company ( I forget the name ) working on behalf of UC .

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Rubyroobs

It's a routine process. Premium bonds would count towards the capital limits and I guess Paypal transactions also need to be checked in case you are running a business or something/ selling on Ebay or whatever. There will be scrutiny with claiming anything means tested. I have read on other sites that people are being asked to send details of things like Betting accounts so they are clearly scrutinizing everything very carefully. This current government have committed to clamping down on benefit fraud.

Muttleythefrog

It's standard and has been going on for a while since towards the end of the last government. Benefit fraud rose massively during Covid as checks were relaxed. They're now 'randomly' carrying out reviews and what they've asked for is standard. 

peteuk

You can hold money in a PayPal account, so therefore they check.  Its not about the transactions its more about the balance.

born_again

Muttleythefrog said:

It's standard and has been going on for a while since towards the end of the last government. Benefit fraud rose massively during Covid as checks were relaxed. They're now 'randomly' carrying out reviews and what they've asked for is standard. 

Not so sure on random. As we had one last year & this year..

Makes sense to do a annual check. Then you do not end up with issues of massive back payments, due to someone forgetting to update UC 👍

TELLIT01

The initial check may have been entirely random but they require more information based on the responses of the OP.  They may be close to the point where deductions from benefit will be made and a check is being made on that basis.  They may not have originally declared the Premium Bonds (for example) or PB winnings may have been rolled back into more bonds.  When I worked on ESA many people did overlook their Premium Bond holding.

Those are just a couple of reason for more checks being made.

HillStreetBlues

born_again said:

Muttleythefrog said:

It's standard and has been going on for a while since towards the end of the last government. Benefit fraud rose massively during Covid as checks were relaxed. They're now 'randomly' carrying out reviews and what they've asked for is standard. 

Not so sure on random. As we had one last year & this year..

Makes sense to do a annual check. Then you do not end up with issues of massive back payments, due to someone forgetting to update UC 👍

It will be like a banks fraud detection, the algorithms / AI will flag something up.
For whatever reasons (there will be a reason)  your account has been marked as a I higher chance of fraud than many others.

Baldytyke88

mikey888 said:

After about 3 hours of trial and error ( I'm not very good with techy stuff ) I finally managed to send the statements.

Can somebody inform what the hell is going on ? Do they suspect me of fraud or is this just a routine UC process. Or is this some kind of general UC payments crackdown by the newly elected Government? Its highly inconvenient to have go through all this whilst also caring and providing emotional support to an elderly relative who is in severe pain due to multiple health issues.  Finally , I should add that the interviewer stated that they were calling from a private company ( I forget the name ) working on behalf of UC .

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Your reluctance and poor online skills could come across as withholding information deliberately.

Mee

Baldytyke88 said:

mikey888 said:

After about 3 hours of trial and error ( I'm not very good with techy stuff ) I finally managed to send the statements.

Can somebody inform what the hell is going on ? Do they suspect me of fraud or is this just a routine UC process. Or is this some kind of general UC payments crackdown by the newly elected Government? Its highly inconvenient to have go through all this whilst also caring and providing emotional support to an elderly relative who is in severe pain due to multiple health issues.  Finally , I should add that the interviewer stated that they were calling from a private company ( I forget the name ) working on behalf of UC .

Thanks for any help you can provide.

At what point did they state "they were calling from a private company".
I would be worried that a system set-up for checking so called benefit fraud could enable fraud on benefit claimants.

born_again

HillStreetBlues said:

born_again said:

Muttleythefrog said:

It's standard and has been going on for a while since towards the end of the last government. Benefit fraud rose massively during Covid as checks were relaxed. They're now 'randomly' carrying out reviews and what they've asked for is standard. 

Not so sure on random. As we had one last year & this year..

Makes sense to do a annual check. Then you do not end up with issues of massive back payments, due to someone forgetting to update UC 👍

It will be like a banks fraud detection, the algorithms / AI will flag something up.
For whatever reasons (there will be a reason)  your account has been marked as a I higher chance of fraud than many others.

Roll on the sharing of banks data to them. Save a lot of wasted calls. 

I've no worries around fraud. 🤣

HillStreetBlues

born_again said:

Roll on the sharing of banks data to them. Save a lot of wasted calls. 

I've no worries around fraud. 🤣

Considering many "fraud" transaction banks flag up are false, I'd be careful placing your trust the new detection system will be any different.