SAVINGS AND BANK BALANCE JUST OVER £6000 BUT IT VARIOUS WEEK TO WEEK

i am unable to work and on the highest levels of PIP, they really do make things so hard for people, who are trying to abide by the rules, i wrote to them in january to say they my total assets were hovering around the £6000 limit & asking how often i need to send the info but it changes, they change every day & impossibole to get through to on the phone. I willwrite to them again, as there has been a slight increase but again, it changes by the day. This time it will be recorded dlivery. If i do not receive a reply i will contact my MP who has helped me massively in the past and would recommend anyone who is struggling to get an answer from DWP to do the same, thanks guys for trying to help

I would hope sending another letter recorded delivery will prompt a response from them, it certainly did when I sent my letter regarding an increase in funds in my account. If not like you say there is always your MP. Best of luck getting this sorted so you can have some sort of peace of mind, though I accept that is not a luxury easily afforded to those of us receiving benefits!

Best wishes,
Gaddy

if you are on PIP you aren't at risk of being prosecuted for fraud I don't think, but you would need to repay any overpayment, I imagine there are amounts of overpayment where the DWP aren't interested in collecting, it costs money to investigate and otherwise deal with these things.

other people have suggested you could also just declare savings of £6249 and have your benefits reduced by £2 a week or whatever it is, if there aren't any essential items you need to buy that would reduce your savings far enough below £6000 that fluctuations in value would take you over £6000.

given that this would be dealt with on a compliance basis not fraud because of your disability, you could also keep a record month by month and send it into them, so "from 1-3 it was above £6k, then it dropped below for a week, then above between 3pm and 6pm on the 17th" etc, it's going to be much easier to tell them about changes in the past than keep them up to date as it happens (which is basically impossible to do).

if you're able to take letters into your local jobcentre and get a receipt you wouldn't need to send them recorded, but if you were sending one letter a month you might not be too worried about that.

"if you are on PIP you aren't at risk of being prosecuted for fraud I don't think"

"given that this would be dealt with on a compliance basis not fraud because of your disability"

Hi adam33

From DC's posts it seems clear that he is seeking to do everything he can to comply with the rules re notifying the DWP re his changing levels of savings. I don't think there's any mention in his posts that the DWP is suspecting fraud or that there is any need for "compliance interviews." I waned to comment on the 2 quotes from your last post which although I am sure they were written in good faith they are, in my opinion, a bit misleading although not intentionally so I'm sure!

"if you are on PIP you aren't at risk of being prosecuted for fraud I don't think"

In a general sense this is untrue as it seems to imply that being on a disability benefit confers "immunity" from prosecution for fraud - it does not! Whilst, as i''ve said before, there's no suggestion of fraud here, on occasion a tiny proportion of disability benefit claimants ARE successfully prosecuted for fraud!

"given that this would be dealt with on a compliance basis not fraud because of your disability"

This too is potentially misleading although again not intentionally so.

You don't - and can't - know how "this" would be dealt with AT ALL let alone in a particular way because of his disability! As in your first comment you are also making the incorrect assumption that "disability" necessarily precludes prosecution for fraud - again it does not!

I am making these comments because I think it's important those of us - including me - on disability benefits realise we have to do everything we can - including getting additional support if we need it - to ensure that we comply with the rules. I wouldn't want anyone to get a false sense of security re this issue simply because they are on disability benefits! I too am on means-tested disability benefits and whilst I am not committing benefit fraud - and of course have no plans to do so - IF the DWP ever suspected that I was they would investigate this and they would likely prosecute me if they thought I was committing fraud regardless of my disability!

Kind regards

Mr B

unless something has changed in recent years disabled people don't go down the "fraud" pipeline they go down the compliance one, they would be dealt with by a compliance officer not a fraud officer, initally at least, what I'm trying to say is that I think it'd be fine to record any fluctuations over £6k and send a letter monthly after the fact if any adjustments are needed, the OP seems to be getting very stressed over something I doubt the DWP are that bothered about, or is an unusual situation that they don't know how to deal with, the "we're onto you!" scary advertising is a bit misleading and causes people unnecessary stress I think

I can't be bothered to google further than this right now, and I realise the folly of linking to another forum post instead of official sources but some interesting posts here (mostly about the compliance officer collecting overpayments then it not being possible for the DWP to start further fraud action on the same case after that point), once again I don't think any overpayments in this case would be of a high enough level for anything much to happen apart from a letter asking for the money back, it was the case that people claiming DLA would be dealt with by a compliance officer rather than a fraud investigation being launched, there is probably a DWP manual or some guidance notes online with all this in.

yes if it was someone claiming DLA fraudulently, claiming they had a disability, that would be criminal, but overpayments like this sort of thing by a bona fide disabled claimant would not be

www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/2926...ment-on-jsa-worried/