Going abroad 30 days while on UC

Spoonie_Turtle

NedS said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

la531983 said:

Ive never claimed UC in my life. So a practical question if I may.....how would they actually know? If you landed a few hours late, who tells them? 

Presumably they can check with whichever entity collects information about going through immigration at the airport, they'll have the information about when you're technically back in the country.  (It may even potentially be automatically shared, but I don't know whether it is or not.)

They would know because the claimant would declare it. Failure to declare absence from the country for more than 1 month would be fraud.

Yes, Border Force shares information with DWP about claimants who are out of the country, so anyone failing to declare an absence would get flagged up and investigated for fraud.

Good to know, thanks.

(And yes re: fraud but I was focusing on the practical question of how they would find out.  Most people knowing their obligation would be sure tell them, but realistically some people might not for whatever reason.)

la531983

How would Border Force know who a claimant is?

TELLIT01

"How would they know" should most definitely not be used as the decision maker!  DWP may well not check, but the consequences if a claimant is out of the country for a longer than permitted period, and it is discovered could be serious.  Closure of the claim and having to repay benefit would be the ultimate risk.

Personally I'd try to work around 28 days as maximum period, to allow for any potential delays on the return journey.

Muttleythefrog

la531983 said:

How would Border Force know who a claimant is?

They won't be interested in benefit claimants.... but movements in and out of the country will be electronically held and potentially accessed by DWP.