My wife/caregiver has been told by UC that they can’t find her immigration status?

older01

The situation that we are currently experiencing with UC is tantamount to harassment.

Initially they wrote to us both via the work coach asking us to submit our finances for the last three months, so we did. Next they asked us to upload our ID - so this was also done. My wife had to resubmit her ID with her passport beside her face as further proof. I was messaged to do the same. The messages continued. Since late September this year there have been more than 40 correspondence through our journal. By number 36 request I told that that it amounted to harassment, and the new government were certainly getting them doing something for their money unnecessarily. I received ANOTHER message advising me that I had to attend a telephone interview to go over my bank statements?? I just thought 💭 Okay..whatever! I have nothing to hide.

The last Sign into your journal request was to my wife - She migrated to England from Portugal 26 years ago, and after Brexit was granted indefinite leave to remain. She has even done the Living in Britain theory test and passed it. This was done through the Home Office. She passed the test and was granted the same status regardless of where she may have previously resided. She upheld her job as a London bus driver for 17 years, paying her NI contributions.

So - are they harassing us? I don’t know why all of this is suddenly happening with our claim? Is this just policy as they claim? I suspect not.

OverlyAnxious

Hi,

UC are doing thousands of similar reviews at the moment. This is largely for financial reasons (as you had to do yourself with bank statements) but I suspect they are checking things like immigration status as well, as they do ask for passport or driving licence at the same time. That in itself wouldn't be a concern, but it is concerning they can't find her immigration status.

I don't have any experience with this but does she have any paperwork or anything online to prove that status? It is the responsibility of the claimant to confirm this sort of thing and should be easily done if she can just upload some paperwork for them.

Rosie_Scope

Hi @older01, sorry you're going through this. Unfortunately, as OverlyAnxious mentioned, they're doing a lot of these checks at the moment. Lots of members are being reviewed, including bank checks and ID.

40 messages does seem a little excessive though, so I can understand the frustration!

Hopefully once your wife's immigration status is confirmed it will all settle down. But if it doesn't and you feel you're being treated unfairly, you could try raising a complaint:

Complaints procedure - Department for Work and Pensions - GOV.UK

Fingers crossed it all gets sorted soon.

older01

@OverlyAnxious @Rosie_Scope
Thanks for your kind replies.

My wife obviously did her ID with her British driving licence and Portuguese passport. She was granted indefinite leave to remain in the country after Brexit, and before she married me she did the Living in Britain theory test, which is quite tricky even by my standards as a UK citizen. Her records are on the Home Office system. That’s how frustrating it all is that one Government can’t communicate with another but they expect us to.

I’m sure it will eventually be sorted out happily, but it’s very upsetting.