Further evidence review issue

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AlanG76

Good evening everyone,

I am absolutely wracked with fear over my further evidence review on Friday. I claim LCWRA and PIP as i have mental health, back and diabetes issues.

I had a call with an agent on the 20/3 after I had given him 4 months worth of statements and literally the call lasted 5 minutes after I asked a couple of questions about a couple of ins and outs on my account and we then finished the call and I received a message on my UC journal telling me that my review was closed and I presumed that was that and everything was fine.

However the following day I received another message stating that I was required to attend my local job centre for a face to face meeting and that I would need to take statements covering the period of my claim thus far, so 18 months worth over two accounts, one of which I closed last August as it had no money going into it although there was money in there which I transferred over.

Now, going through the statements I found an anomaly whereby on 14th May 2024 my LCWRA and PIP put me over the £16,000 threshold after my assessment period. This was because I was in the process of moving and so I had to pay a deposit as well as six months rent in advance, but my landlord didn’t take the money out until the end of May. So in effect I was over the threshold for 14 days, after which my money was mire or less halved. I haven’t financially gained out of this and this is the only occasion since I’ve been claiming this has happened.

My question is, how much of an issue is this going to be with the DWP? My mental health has almost spiralled out of control and I am not sleeping as my stress levels are through the roof. 😢

mawempathy

I think anything identified in a review that is abnormal triggers a call for further evidence. Going over the £16k threshold they'll want to look over your accounts over an extended period to make sure this isn't repeated behaviour. They'll want to do this face-to-face with you because it's easier to go over the bank statements together with you and have a discussion.

Take any evidence you have that supports your explanation and hopefully they should be entirely reasonable about it. If you have letters or emails you can take around that time with discussions about payments that were eventually taken, that would definitely help. That you can show the amount did leave your account 14 days later, and to an account belonging to a letting agent or landlord, it will be clear you wasn't trying to deceive the system for financial gain.

Reasonable people do exist at the DWP, and I've been pretty lucky overall in my dealings with them. Just be open and honest.