universal credit review and i have gambling on bank statements
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the deposit and the debit may have hit my account at the same time however I don't know. I know deposits work through the banking system faster as debits have more security checks. I am just worried that universal credit will think i won the money first and then lost it which i know is not the case as i have to pay for the bets first
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@OverlyAnxious please read the whole message at 0908 AM .not sure why my message has split into three sections. sorry for the confusion
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I can understand why you're concerned about this, but as it happened on the same day, and in the middle of the AP, it really doesn't make any difference to UC.
I'm not sure there's much more I can say to reassure you unfortunately. I really do think it will be fine. If you've got several gambling transactions on your account already, then they know you aren't using gambling to purposely deprive yourself of capital. And if they ask about it, you can simply tell them what you've told us, that the money was bet first, and won back afterwards. They will know that transactions don't always line up perfectly on bank statements. Weekend transactions aren't shown on my own statements so it often looks like I've had a massive blow out on a Monday!
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so regardless of my account showing briefly £8900 and then reducing same day back to £6300 they cannot just say i had the money and lost it.is that what you are saying. deposits and debits do not line up in my account
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@OverlyAnxious I would like to thank you for your advice and most of all your time you spend replying . One minute I am ok and then in the evening the worry creeps back in. This has to be the worst feeling ever as I overthink things with the fear of something bad is going to happen within this review. I sent my statements and ID on the 19 august (25 days ago) and it seems forever that I wait for the phone call.
I just want to make sure I have explained everything correctly to you. My balance was around £6300 on the day I gambled the £2000 however the deposit hit my bank first which inflated my account to around £8300 briefly and on the same day the debit was taken from my account taking my balance back down to around £6300.In reality all I have done is won my money back. Deposits seem to always hit banks before debits as debits require more security checks which make debit transactions slower. The deposit and the debit might have hit my account at exact same time however I have no idea. Obviously, I have to pay first with the debits before I am eligible for any pay-out. My worry I have is will universal credit think I won the money first and then lost it regardless of whether both transactions happened in the betting shop on the same day and was deposited and debited into my bank on the same day. As explained, I have lots of gambling in my bank statements but not all crazy and I just fear they will think I am doing something excessive and cut me off from benefits. I only have one bank account and never had PayPal or online gambling accounts as explained before my balance has only been around £6300 on six occasions since 2022 and all other assessments periods were under £6000.It’s the betting that is worrying me to a crazy extreme and I have never felt this bad ever. I would really appreciate it if you could once again guide me with your knowledge. I fear that universal credit will try and class me as causing deprivation of capital and calculate my benefits as if I still have the capital (notional capital)
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They can say whatever they like (within reason), not all of them understand the rules so some of them do make mistakes. But legally they'd have to prove where the money came from and then that you had purposely deprived yourself of it afterwards in order to claim deprivation of capital. There is no chance of them being able to do that. You haven't done anything wrong here.
Personally I believe they will be more interested in an unexplained £2000 of income than the loss of apparent capital through gambling. Now knowing it appears that way on your statements, I would expect them to ask you where that income came from. And you can simply say that it was spent first and won back afterwards. If they don't believe you, I'm sure you could get confirmation from the betting shop. They will have to keep records of past transactions for at least 12 months.
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@OverlyAnxious thanks again for replying. I have some bets not many that I won in cash from gambling and both winnings and loses equal about the same and I paid that into my account through the post office counter service which was an instant deposit. The bets were debited 2 days later. The debits however show the same transaction date as my deposit .is this going to be a problem apart from explaining the money paid through the post office
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No, that won't be a problem.
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@OverlyAnxious you have no idea how much you have helped through this period in my life and I thank you so much. I turned to gambling to take my mind off the cancer and it was a way of escaping away from worrying over cancer thoughts. I now know my gambling has to stop and it has as its bad whichever way I look at it. I just wait the phone call now.is there an average time I will wait to get this phone call ?. Am I correct it will be easier for me to prove that 96% of my deposits / debits transfers are direct to and from the betting shop and the 4% gambling cash through post office / gambling debits will be a little harder to explain
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@OverlyAnxious I have just looked through my bank statements and I notice i have received since 2022 cost of living payments totalling £1000+. I read on line that this is indefinitely not counted as capital unless my balance drops below the payment received. am I correct that this £1000+ is still active on my capital now as not counted If I never spent it. this would mean if I am correct that the handful of times my balance reached £6300 that i would actually be well under the £6000 capital limit.
on my 4 months statements there is no cost of living payments on there for that period so do I then have to remind universal credit on my phone call that there is col in previous months or will they automatically reduce this
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Hi,
Yes, you are correct, the Cost of Living payments are disregarded indefinitely if savings have never dropped below their amounts.
Unfortunately, if you tell UC about them now, they will ask you for all bank statements going right back to 2022 to confirm the exact amounts that you received and to prove that the total savings never dropped below that amount at any point between then and now.
The online system was updated to include a disregards section, but frustratingly it does not an include an option for the Cost of Living payments. Personally I deduct mine before putting the savings figure into the online system, and have told UC I do that, though they have never confirmed whether they deem that acceptable or not, so I cannot really recommend that method to others yet.
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When I had a review in 2023, I told them while my bank accounts were over £6k on paper, I hadn't declared anything as with the CoL disregarded I was under.
UC confirmed the CoL were disregarded and asked for individual statement pages only showing the payments going in.
I used a website to narrow down payment dates and sent in the few corresponding pages.
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thank you. I just wait now for a date for this phone call.
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