UC Claim review - HELP

AtlasShoulders

Hi, I have just received the following message in my UC journal:

"We are reviewing your Universal Credit claim to make sure your payments are correct.

As part of the review, you will need to send us information to confirm your details. You will get a separate journal message about this.

We will update you in the next 7 days with more information."

My mental health is really bad and I'm terrified that something bad is going to happen. Has anyone else had a message like this? I'm really scared and I don't know what to do.

poppy123456

Yes, reviews are back on for selected people, not everyone. If they refer you for another assessment then you'll receive a letter on your journal telling you this. You will then receive the UC50 form in the post within about a week after that.

You will need to make sure you fill it in and return it with all your supporting evidence.

AtlasShoulders

I don't think it is anything to do with the WCA. Apparently it is a random Capital ID check. Is this normal?

poppy123456

AtlasShoulders said:

I don't think it is anything to do with the WCA. Apparently it is a random Capital ID check. Is this normal?

Then it will be just a random compliance check. Yes, it's perfectly normal and they do them sometimes. Did you claim UC anytime during the pandemic by any chance? If so then they've been doing checks for those claimants for quite sometime. This is because checks were relaxed for quite sometime during the pandemic.

AtlasShoulders

poppy123456 said:

AtlasShoulders said:

I don't think it is anything to do with the WCA. Apparently it is a random Capital ID check. Is this normal?

Then it will be just a random compliance check. Yes, it's perfectly normal and they do them sometimes. Did you claim UC anytime during the pandemic by any chance? If so then they've been doing checks for those claimants for quite sometime. This is because checks were relaxed for quite sometime during the pandemic.

Thanks Poppy. No we made our claim in 2019 and then got LCWRA in 2022. It just came as a massive shock and I immediately assumed I must have done something wrong. I'm finding it really hard to cope with all these sorts of things.

chlo

hi - I’ve received the same thing could i ask what the outcome/issue was? 

AtlasShoulders

chlo said:

hi - I’ve received the same thing could i ask what the outcome/issue was? 

Yeah it was very straightforward. Sent over all the documents, then had a phone call to verify the details. The phone call could be up to 90 minutes but in our case only lasted 10 minutes. The agent had to interview both my partner and I separately - it felt a bit like a police interview. It was just running through a list of places you could keep money (e.g. post office account, stocks, shares, ISA, PayPal, etc) to confirm that everything had been declared. It seemed to be just a random spot check, I'm not sure whether it was based on any particular suspicion or allegation. But after the interview, the agent confirmed everything was fine and put a message on our journal to that effect. 

chlo

Thanks for the reply, what documents did you have to send over? 

AtlasShoulders

chlo said:

Thanks for the reply, what documents did you have to send over? 

Proof of ID and 4 months of bank statements. From other people's experiences this seems to be standard

maddanj

I just got a UC review journal message. Interestingly after I had sent a message asking if I need to tell them if opened another savings account to get a higher interest. They said not if your savings are under £6,000. Which they aren't as they owed me 3 years backpayment which I've not spent under £6,000 yet as I'm limited mobility and don't get out much and couldn't spend 3 years of back payment in 1 year.

My Case Manager said this backpayment isn't regarded as Capital. The initial award was in August 2022 and the final amount payed in December 2022.

There's complexity as a joint UC/ESA claim. ESA awarded me the full 3 years backpayment and UC only awarded 9 months less back payment as they said they couldn't find fit 3 UC fit note declarations so I had to return 9 months of the full ESA  back payment.

I had to get my MP to write a complaint to DWP who said I should have been awarded the full UC backpayment as I ESA had all of my fit notes. The ESA payments are discounted from my payments as they both awarded me. I couldn't calculate what I was actually due because they change the Statements for those periods so it's impossible to check and I was in such a state of anxiety and depression after this.

poppy123456

@maddanj is the review journal message for a work capability assessment? Telling you they are referring you for another work capability assessment? 

Or is it just a review of your actual UC claim to make sure it’s all correct? There’s a big difference between the 2. 

legendofall

I am currently going through this review too, mine is for 4 months bank statements, I've been going back and forth with the UC team and they just make me more angry, already i'm depressed and stressed, and have anxiety attacks and this guy tells me we need 1 more month statement, but that statement is a savings account, statements are generated yearly, which he clearly doesn't understand, its been going on for like 2 weeks now, sent them a statement, i sent a screenshot to show them there is no transactions for july and august, yet he replies and says sorry no screenshots allowed, i now need to go to my bank and get them to print this 1 month statement out, its a bloody headache, especially when I hate going into buildings due to my anxiety, really stressful and then tells me my benefit can get affected if i don't send them the 1 month statement, all other 3 month statements is fine. its ridiculous the amount of stress these UC people put you through

poppy123456

bobby123 said:

What do you do if you recently switched bank accounts to get the free £200 incentive and you don't have 3 months worth of bank statements yet

Have you been asked for bank statements? If so do you have them from your old account?

poppy123456

bobby123 said:

poppy123456 said:

bobby123 said:

What do you do if you recently switched bank accounts to get the free £200 incentive and you don't have 3 months worth of bank statements yet

Have you been asked for bank statements? If so do you have them from your old account?

I haven't been asked just asking incase they ask me.  My old bank account closed so I don't have access to that

Please try not to worry about something that hasn't happened. Cross that bridge if you come to it. In the meantime please try to relax. They don't review claimants all the time.

Jimm_Scope

If you contact your old bank they should still have some statements on record and should be able to send you copies. Generally statements can be held for up to 6 years even after account closure.

maddanj

poppy123456 said:

@maddanj is the review journal message for a work capability assessment? Telling you they are referring you for another work capability assessment? 

Or is it just a review of your actual UC claim to make sure it’s all correct? There’s a big difference between the 2. 

Idon't know Poppy. They won't provide me with any information about the review in the journal as reqeusted.  The adviser wrote that I would be able to ask questions on a pre-review call but I've told I've told them that I need to prepare for everything as my mental health condition impacts my cognition and ability to understand and write things down properly. I also think that it discriminates in some form if they won't provide informaiton that must be availble on this process. I read an article in June that said UC will be doing reviews to ensure people are getting the right payments but this is more abour discovering fraud thatn it is to ensure people have the right payments.

I also said that I would be looking at my payments as I think they underpaid me a few months in the last year and didn't pay me the correct housing allowance when I moved not long before lockdown in 2020. I gave up after asking this to be reviewed 3 times that year.

poppy123456

@maddanj if the letter doesn’t tell you that you’re being referred for a work capability assessment then it won’t be this.

It will be as you said, they are checking your claim is correct. They have been doing a lot of those checks in the past year or so. 

Kimmy87

Lots of these reviews happening currently, I believe the aim is 2 million and with 5.1 million on UC (as of May 2023) that's quite a large percentage. 

maddanj

Hi @poppy123456

I only had a message in my journal about a UC payments review rather than a risk review. My claim was verified prior to Covid. After my experiences with their incompetence and decisions made against the regulations, I have great anxiety regarding anything to do with thier handling of benefits.

Hannah_Alumni

I'm so sorry the process has caused you such anxiety @maddanj. Can I ask do you have support? 

legendofall

I've just had a UC claim review and they asked everything.. my account of course has payments going in and out from family, not my money, as I am on UC only and now LCWRA, I been doing a lot of transfers to my own accounts, this totalling to over 10k over the few months, now the account has been closed unfortunately and bank won't give me a reason why, therefore they are asking for my other bank account statements, I have also been gambling and I am getting help for that too but mostly these transfers have been from gambling payments, yet this dude thinks otherwise, I've won from gambling which was 5k and then another 2k from another betting company. At the end of this will my LCWRA be affected? UC he did say that you can either be sanctioned or lose your UC, fined or prosecuted. Only problem is every account I hold is mostly gambling, I did have a bad habit doing it but I don't gamble as much anymore. what I understand is gambling is tax free money therefore they can't hold me against that right?.