UC phone appointment on Friday

robertt

Hello, happy new year.
Today got message in my journal.

“Phone appointment is to review your UC claim, discuss the information you have already provided and further evidence.”

Recently about a month ago I was asked to submit bank statements. I’m still on LCWRA since Covid. Any idea what they will ask? Thank you.

Kimmy87

UC are doing millions of these checks, I went through one last year and loads of others on the forum have been through one. They are to make sure your payments are correct from a financial perspective.

You'll be asked a series of scripted questions about other potential sources of money, ISA's, PayPal, property, premium bonds etc.

Then questions about some of your banking transactions, which might not appear to make any sense (mine didn't).

I myself (as capital was over £6k on paper) was then asked to submit individual bank statement pages showing my Cost of Living payments.

I've seen others who were asked for PayPal account statements after the call.

Then I had a journal message saying my review was complete and my payments were correct.

durhamjaide2001

good luck for Friday I hope it goes well and do keep us informed is there are any updates on this.

robertt

@durhamjaide2001 hi . Today I had phone review. After few minutes of conversation I was told to submit other bank account statements (4 months) On my initial statement, there was transaction between my accounts. I was asked about it . I was also asked about few payments I made to someone, and what was it for. I felt violated. This has nothing to do with ( as they call it,receiving correct amount) Obviously I was also read a script about possibility of losing claim and paying money back, as well as being prosecuted if not disclosed correct information.

peters77

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/972933#Comment_972933

Sounds awful if i'm honest an dreading when they do one for me. I understand why but its seems very intrusive and violating! I'm not sure I like this UC migration seems to be a headache.

Thanks for sharing.

Kimmy87

I didn't particularly enjoy being questioned about my spending either.

robertt

@durhamjaide2001 yeh , now I need to send Monzo statement . Oh boy , oh boy oh boy ! I would receive payments into my Monzo from friends £200 here ,£100 there .. sometimes they would ask me to buy crypto currency for them as their bank won’t allow it or something . I bet UC is not going to like it . I even had £950 received back in September for my car . Sold it to my friend . Is that going to be a problem? I don’t know.

anisty

My son's turned into the worst nightmare ever - i am his appointee. Here's a cautionary tale:

My son doesn't spend enough. When his statements were pulled in, i saw the balances (he had declared capital in a building society but his current acc balance was also sitting high on 2 of the 4 submitted statements)

I panicked, put a note in the journal to say i thought his capital had exceeded 16k. Got a reply saying update capital immediately but i did not have a clue how to work out current acc capital with the fluctuating balance, nor did i know about COL disregards. So i just guessed he had 3k in his current account. That made his total capital 16.5k.

That triggered an extra evidence appt at the job centre.

Oddly, when i got to the JC, they could not see the 4 months statements already uploaded to Swindon.

Anyway, they looked over the ones i took in and the very next day closed both the claim and the journal.

Frustratingly, they were still putting messages to me in the journal but i could not reply.

One message said my review call with the swindon team was still going ahead at 12 noon on 22nd jan.

So - there i am sitting with bank statements waiting for the call. No call.

Stupidly, whilst waiting, i had the closed journal open in front of me and, to pass the time, i clicked 'start new claim'

Argggghh! I didn't even want to start a new claim but now his old journal is gone!

Still no call so i called them and they said it wasn't going ahead.

4pm i get a text to alert me to a journal message which i now can't read. Call again and it's a message to say my 12 noon appt cancelled!!

And - i have since learned his capital never exceeded 16k so my initial panic caused all this.

I have put in an MR.

Unfortunately, there is under reporting of capital going right back as i never updated his rising balance due to the addition of interest. And did not realise his current acc balance counted as capital until all this happened.

He never exceeded 16k at any point. But his declared capital was 13k and he has often had 14 or 15k. He started off with capital gifted from his grandparents.

With journal closed, this is going to be a long process communicating with dwp by post.

Fortunately, he does have the capital there to repay but i feel i have let him down, and also his grandparents who took 18 yrs to save that up for him. I don't think the overpayment will be as much as 13k. Around 5k i calculate. All for being frugal!

So - although i never got the call - i sure got the stress. Looking on the bright side, it's fortunate they did catch this mistake now. It would have continued had they not contacted me.