Fraud and Error Prevention Service

motorhead

Hello Peeps

It looks like I've gained the attention of the Fraud and Error Prevention Service. It started last week with a rather mysterious phone call from an Olympia Zimbandi, claiming to be from the DWP . I was immediately suspicious about this as they're not supposed to call me without warning so I can be in a safe place to take the call. I wouldn't give her any of the information she wanted to confirm my identity as she could have been a phishing fraudster for all I knew. She said she'd send me a letter instead and that I should visit my local Job Centre if I didn't receive it within a week.
 
The letter came on Saturday. It seems that they are concerned about a pension I cashed in for slightly over £4,000 in March 2021and a further one for just over £2,500 in February this year. Neither of which pushed my savings over £6,000.

It says " Please provide bank statements for all the bank accounts held in your name from the date of 25 March 2021 to present date. Ensure that they show the lump some payments from the pension companies. We also need to see proof
( invoices/receipts/withdrawals/transfers ) of all the large amounts during this period and a written explanation of any expenditures £300 and over."

As it happens I've got accounts with 2 banks. One is fairly normal in that I get sent a paper statement at the same time every month but the other, my main one, is "paperless" and they issue me with electronic/digital statements at apparently random intervals of 10-14 days. I've managed to download the 2021 statements in 30 pages so it looks like the final tally, just for this bank will be over 100 pages plus about 30 for the other bank plus whatever the DWP means by written explanations and invoices/receipts/withdrawals/transfers and then I've to fit it into one skimpy A5 envelope.

So I phoned the DWP this morning. It only took about an hour and a half to speak to a chap called John. He was pleasant enough but didn't seem to know much about the situation. He could only speculate about most things but I can do that myself. However, it does look like I've got to print all the statements etc off at my own expense and I can use a bigger envelope, again at my own expense.

John agreed to get Olympia to call me back and text me the day before so I can be in a safe place to take the call. Apparently there is a note in my files about not calling me unexpectedly, so it looks like Olympia didn't read all the notes or has a sadly cavalier attitude to my safety.

This all seems to be a result of HMRC and the DWP talking to each other nowadays and it's a bit like Brexit in that they don't seem to have thought it all through properly and are having to make things up as they go along.

Can anyone add anything to this and maybe give me some pointers on what to ask Olympia when she calls? I'm supposed to get all this done by the 21st of this month and I think this is a bit of a tall order.

Albus_Scope

Heya @motorhead (loving the name)

I just wanted to check in and see how you got on with your call with Olympia? 

2oldcodgers

motorhead said:

Hello Peeps

It looks like I've gained the attention of the Fraud and Error Prevention Service. It started last week with a rather mysterious phone call from an Olympia Zimbandi, claiming to be from the DWP . I was immediately suspicious about this as they're not supposed to call me without warning so I can be in a safe place to take the call. I wouldn't give her any of the information she wanted to confirm my identity as she could have been a phishing fraudster for all I knew. She said she'd send me a letter instead and that I should visit my local Job Centre if I didn't receive it within a week.
 
The letter came on Saturday. It seems that they are concerned about a pension I cashed in for slightly over £4,000 in March 2021and a further one for just over £2,500 in February this year. Neither of which pushed my savings over £6,000.

It says " Please provide bank statements for all the bank accounts held in your name from the date of 25 March 2021 to present date. Ensure that they show the lump some payments from the pension companies. We also need to see proof
( invoices/receipts/withdrawals/transfers ) of all the large amounts during this period and a written explanation of any expenditures £300 and over."

As it happens I've got accounts with 2 banks. One is fairly normal in that I get sent a paper statement at the same time every month but the other, my main one, is "paperless" and they issue me with electronic/digital statements at apparently random intervals of 10-14 days. I've managed to download the 2021 statements in 30 pages so it looks like the final tally, just for this bank will be over 100 pages plus about 30 for the other bank plus whatever the DWP means by written explanations and invoices/receipts/withdrawals/transfers and then I've to fit it into one skimpy A5 envelope.

So I phoned the DWP this morning. It only took about an hour and a half to speak to a chap called John. He was pleasant enough but didn't seem to know much about the situation. He could only speculate about most things but I can do that myself. However, it does look like I've got to print all the statements etc off at my own expense and I can use a bigger envelope, again at my own expense.

John agreed to get Olympia to call me back and text me the day before so I can be in a safe place to take the call. Apparently there is a note in my files about not calling me unexpectedly, so it looks like Olympia didn't read all the notes or has a sadly cavalier attitude to my safety.

This all seems to be a result of HMRC and the DWP talking to each other nowadays and it's a bit like Brexit in that they don't seem to have thought it all through properly and are having to make things up as they go along.

Can anyone add anything to this and maybe give me some pointers on what to ask Olympia when she calls? I'm supposed to get all this done by the 21st of this month and I think this is a bit of a tall order.

Been through this myself twice within the past 7 years. It's a pain I know all to well.
Yes you will have to download at your expense all of the relevant bank statements which like yourself relates to two bank accounts.
I then had to go through all of the statements giving an explanation, with evidence, of all withdrawals over £500. As we do all of our shopping with Sainsburys and Tesco I was able to obtain complete statements showing all withdrawals and reasons.
I also had to 'prove' all cash and cheque deposits.

It took a couple of weeks to get the lot together and I then boxed all of it together (approx 4" of paper), paid a fortune in postage and sent it to them.

It has to be done otherwise you will be putting yourself in a difficult position.

I found out later that it was HMRC that started the issue by telling the DWP that all of my weekly sources of income varied by up to 25p at a time simply  because of the way the tax system works. All in all they went through everything with a fine toothcomb and managed to find that I had been overpaid benefits totalling just under £500 over those 7 years 

motorhead

No call has been forthcoming. I was told that I was "on a 3 day callback" but that they were running up to 5 days late. That would have been last Monday at the latest.
I'm thinking about phoning up again tomorrow even if it provides more humourous entertainment for my local Post Office staff.
I reckon there's going to be a lot more of this, including scrutiny of claimants bank accounts.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpNaf2dz1zU

woodbine

I think it looks like they have concerns that cashing in pensions might have taken you over the £6k savings limit as you say it didn't then you have nothing to worry about.

motorhead

I'm worried about their competence. It's all been very Keystone Cops so far.