sending documents and id in for a 2nd time just over a year later

allebbc

in July 2023 i received £4500 in compensation for an injury i received in December 2020 in which i had to have 3 operations over a 6 month period. my 2nd operation lasted 7.5 hours to reconstruct ligaments from grafts from ligaments in my other leg.

when that compensation went into my bank i went and withdrew £4000 the very next day. a few weeks later i received an email from UC telling me to login to my journal. upon doing so i was instructed that i had to send in my last 4 months bank account statements and also I.D to prove who i was.

they said i had to send in both sides of my driving licence and that i also had to send in a picture of me holding my licence up to my face to really prove who i said i was.

a week or two later i received another uc notification saying there would be a follow up call to this and that it could last up to 40 minutes.

i received that call some days later and after going through the security checks they said that they had noticed the £4500 go into my bank and that they had seen that i had withdrew $4k the very next day. their very next question to me where had that £4k had gone.

my reply to this was "what has that got to do with you as its my money". he said if i didn't tell him i would be sanctioned. i then explained that as i knew i was going to receive compensation i had borrowed money from friends and family and that i had withdrawn that money to pay them back.

i was then asked a load of other questions about my finances and any property that i owned and that i also had to send in an overview of my paypal account to see if i was holding any capital in there which i was not.

i'm guessing that when i withdrew the £4k it must've triggered money laundering rules with it being a large amount as my total money in the bank never exceeded £5k.

a few weeks later i received a uc notification telling my they were happy with the info i had provided.

a couple of months on from this i received money into my account from a private pension. i notified the dwp and they started deducting £120 a month from UC credit as i was above the £6k threshold but below the £16k limit. now that my money has dropped below the £6k limit my uc credit has returned to normal

now more than a year later i have just had to do the same again and send in my last 4 months statements and my id including me holding my licence up to my face.

i am awaiting a phone call from the dwp later in the week and this time the call could be anything up to 90 minutes

has anyone else had to repeat this a year later. is it routine for them to do this

Jimm_Scope

I've not heard it repeated so often @allebbc. Hopefully you're in the clear for a while now, fingers crossed.

It's possible that the first instance maybe triggered something that initiated the investigation and the second one is just one of their random sampling investigations? Or they think there is some reason you went below the £6000 threshold in a sanctionable way. Which there are so many ways and things that need you to spend money that could bring you below the £6000 it seems like a lot of time being spent on all this! I wonder how much they spend in both hours worked and salary cost in checking these accounts so often. And how much of your own time they take up too.

allebbc

well i will find out if its random or not later on this week, lets hope so and yeah you're right about the time spent on people who only have small amounts of money in their accounts

poppy123456

Sounds like to me that it's just a normal review of your UC claim but the fact it came at the same time as you received the compensation is just a coincidence. Usually for these reviews they ask for 4 bank statements and a picture of you holding your passport or driving license. There's been many members here that have had the exact same review.

I would say the 2nd review is the exact same thing, it's just unfortunate that it's happened to you again. They are reviewing millions of people.

allebbc

it just seemed strange that the very first question he asked me was where the £4k had gone and if i wasn't willing to explain it away he threatened me with being sanctioned

poppy123456

I would expect them to ask that when they see a withdrawal of that large amount on your statement.