UC claim - scared

katrinabill

Hi, I am very worried because my partner made a mistake on his UC claim. He applied for UC as a single person but we live together. Our finances are seperate, he does not receive any support with housing as I own my flat and he is not named on anything. I am really scared he could go to prison. When he moved in I cancelled my single person council tax discount so I have not been cheating my way out of council tax or anything like that. He is waiting for the outcome for his PIP claim as he has signed off from his job at the moment. Without UC he will only have SSP. I think we should make a joint UC claim together but we are very scared of being prosecuted for fraud. Please can anyone advise?

OverlyAnxious

Hi,

Even if there is an overpayment here, it is extremely unlikely that anyone would go to prison for this kind of thing. Worst case scenario is just paying back some money if he's been overpaid.

You are correct that if you live together as a couple then you need to claim UC together, even if you have separate bank accounts.

If you don't have a UC claim yourself yet then you will need to open one and generate a linking code to link the two claims together.

Rosie_Scope

Welcome to the community @katrinabill. I understand things like this can be really scary, but as OverlyAnxious explained, it's really unlikely that your partner would be sent to prison for this. How long have you been living together?

It's probably best just to tell them as soon as you can and be honest that he made a mistake. They may ask him to pay back some money, but it will all be explained to you when you speak to them. They will usually work with you to find a manageable way of paying back anything you might owe.

Are you already claiming UC for yourself, or would you need to set up a new claim?