if i receive a personal injury claim of £9,000 while on means tested income support what is their policy?

4 Comments

1. Mike B says:

   March 11, 2010 at 8:09 am

   You have committed benefit fraud plain and simple.

   All income must be declared upon receipt in order that the benefit can be withrawn or adjusted accordingly, failure to do so is defrauding public funds.

   They already know you have had the money, they do not need you to supply copies of your bank statements, they have the right to access your bank account.

   They could have discovered this money by a number of methods.

   1. Someone has reported it, maybe someone you have had a falling out with, often this leads to Fraud Officers being tipped off.

   2. They conduct random checks of bank accounts.

   3. You have said something when attending the benefit office that has alerted a member of staff, please note, sometimes fraud officers sit in the office just listening to conversations.

   4, It has come to light during another investigation, for example, the Tax Office and DWP are now linked, the tax office receives a tax return from all banks, the tax office has picked up your claim and the payment and reported it back.

   They do not have to tell you how they found out, although if the case comes to court it is possible you will find out then.l

   The Compensation Recovery Unit only becomes aware of a claim under very limited circumstances, normally through people receiving late redundancy payments and or through Industrial Tribunal Cases, in these cases the DWP recovers the funds paid out to you in benefit prior to you receiving a settlement.

   Personal Injury claims are handled differently and do not normally appear in this way.

   If you left the Country to take your children on holiday and did not inform DWP through JCP, then you have also made an illegal claim there, as you cannot leave the Country and receive benefit except if you are attending an interview. Holidays in the UK are also subject to a number of restrictions.

   Failure to provide the bank statements as requested could result in your benefit being suspended and may result in yopur claim being closed until such time you produce the statements.

   Failure to follow the request is also an offence, and as such will only make matters worse.

   My guess, they will eventually confront you with the evidence of the overpayment, and expect to be paid back, if this doesn’t happen that is when they will go for court action.

   My suggestion to you, go to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau urgently, get some free legal advice.
2. patrick s says:

   March 11, 2010 at 8:09 am

   It could be the compensation recovery unit are looking at your claim,you should reported the money you received.
3. joan k says:

   March 11, 2010 at 8:09 am

   You should have declared it at the time as you would be over the limit for benefits. They will claim back the benefits that you have received. They will not be interested that you gave some of the money away. In fact they could prosecute you for benefit fraud for failing to declare it.
4. Back to the drawing board says:

   March 11, 2010 at 8:09 am

   Yes, you were supposed to declare a rise in your capital which would have put you above the benefits level, it is now £6,000 but when you received the compensation it may have been £3,000, but you can still claim benefits if you have up to £16,000, they just get reduced. If you didn’t know this it is no defence as they give you a bit of paper when you claim ‘changes you have to report’. However you are not one of the big time benefits fraudsters, multiple claims, running businesses on the side etc, but you do need proper legal advice so I would recommend the Citizens Advice Bureau who should be able to put you in touch with a law company who deals with benefits cases. I think you are probably in the league of benefit theft rather than benefit fraud which is more serious and intentional. The issue is about ‘deprecation and disposal of capital’, and if you do this knowingly in order to be able to go on claiming benefits, for instance if you were an owner occupier and you had used the money to get your roof fixed you could probably have argued that you were not spending the money to be able to go on claiming benefits but you needed your roof fixed.
   There are all sorts of issues when they decide whether or not to prosecute, if it would be in the ‘public interest’, if disqualifying you from future benefits would put you into hardship etc, hopefully they will just give you an agreement where you pay the money back a bit each week.
   You’re going to have quite a difficult time but good luck, remember that the toffs get away with a lot more.