Fraudulent claim or wrong address?

niknak7278

I’m in receipt of a legacy benefit.  This morning a letter came in the post addressed to someone else at my address.

It was a notification from Universal Credit, informing the addressee that a named person had told them they were now caring for them so any extra benefits they received would be reduced etc.

I’ve already emailed a local welfare benefits advisor for help, as somehow my address is in their system.

The envelope it came in wasn’t a UC envelope, it was a brown DWP one with return address in Belfast.

Do these errors happen often?

poppy123456

HI,

Are you sure it was from Universal Credit? They don't send any letters by post because it's all done through the journal. If you had said it was from somewhere like Carers Allowance, i would have said it could be either of the above.

Errors can happen yes.

niknak7278

Hi @poppy123456

Thanks for that.

The letter head states DWP and the sides state Universal Credit Full Service.

It gives the UC website and telephone number but no full address.

I noticed there’s no personal details like NI Number for the addressee either.

All will be revealed tomorrow I guess.

Thanks again.

poppy123456

Hmm that's a very odd letter and there's a few things that ring alarm bells to me.

1/ There's no such thing as UC full service now because all areas are UC and new claims for the legacy benefits are no long possible. Full service areas used to exist when UC first started.

2/ UC don't send written letters, it's all on the journal.

3/ If a letter from DWP is received it always has the NI number on the letter.

niknak7278

Hello @poppy123456

THANKYOU!!  I really thought I was becoming paranoid over this.  Which is why I emailed for help.  I’m not even going to attempt to try and unravel this myself.

poppy123456

You're very welcome. I don't even know if DWP would tell you if there are any other live claims under your address.

niknak7278

@poppy123456 Now that is a scary thought!

niknak7278

@poppy123456 so the letter refers to a live claim.  This is one time I’m really thankful none of the departments speak to each other as almost certainly would have impacted my DHP/HB.  Advisor is emailing UC dept head to confirm the residents at my address and ask them if they will refer themselves for the data breach or will he do the honours.  I stayed up past midnight Sunday to check the bank. So far so good.

Ross_Alumni

I'm glad the advisor is helping you with this @niknak7278, hopefully it can all be sorted soon  

poppy123456

Yes indeed and that's what i thought. What's very odd is that live claims no longer exist and haven't done for quite sometime.

niknak7278

@poppy123456 okay that’s very strange.  Something else I thought was odd, I was told that the letter was to a child hence no NI number but back in 1995 when I applied for DLA for my 5 year old daughter she was issued with a number, have they stopped doing that now?

poppy123456

That's even more strange because it's impossible for a child to claim UC because it's a working age benefit. A child can't claim any benefits in their own right.

niknak7278

@poppy123456 the letter is called UCDCE1

poppy123456

I have no idea what that is, sorry. I'd be very interested to know the outcome of this and would appreciate it if you could keep us updated, if you don't mind