Universal Credit Review - uploading documents

lizptsd
lizptsd Online Community Member Posts: 175 Empowering
edited November 25 in Universal Credit (UC)

We are having a standard UC review but informed them we could not upload we waited two weeks and finally were given a freepost address to send them to surely this is not a secure way to send sensitive documents to , I am going to ring them and hope that I can get an alternative address but they seem to be more difficult to deal with at the moment does anyone have any advice?

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Comments

  • Kimi87
    Kimi87 Online Community Member Posts: 7,770 Championing

    Can a friend or family member assist with uploading?

  • rubin16
    rubin16 Scope Member Posts: 1,195 Championing

    Freepost address still goes to the same address, only difference is the cost of posting is reversed and paid by DWP. You can use the freepost envelope and still send it recorded delivery which should work out cheaper as some of the cost of posting is already paid.

  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Online Community Member Posts: 15,311 Championing
    edited November 24

    I know it's not ideal and it's a pain as you have to pay, but you're allowed to pay to use a different mail service to send something to a freepost address (like special delivery / signed for) - you can send to the same address but you don't have to use the free option

  • OverlyAnxious
    OverlyAnxious Online Community Member Posts: 5,376 Championing

    I had to send around 8 years worth of bank statements for ESA. Those were sent to a Freepost address. It was always done that way for ESA as they never mastered the internet before UC came along…

  • lizptsd
    lizptsd Online Community Member Posts: 175 Empowering

    Hi everyone thanks for all the advice I have just rung UC and the guy was really helpful and understood my concerns he has messaged the relevant department for the complete address. Unfortunately after being falsely accused of fraud by UC its left me very wary of the DWP .

  • Danny123
    Danny123 Online Community Member Posts: 214 Empowering
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1085389#Comment_1085389

    I still can't believe they made you send 8 years worth 🤦 .... Must of been a nightmare .... Why did they want so many ?

  • Chris75_
    Chris75_ Online Community Member Posts: 3,988 Championing
    edited November 25

    @Danny123

    If they ask you for many years of statements, they must believe they have reasons to suspect fraud.

    Of course, these investigators are suspicious by nature, and in all likelihood, no fraud has been committed.

  • OverlyAnxious
    OverlyAnxious Online Community Member Posts: 5,376 Championing
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1085544#Comment_1085544

    Silly error on my part really. I doubt this exact scenario happened to many people. I started ESA with just over £6k, as I had no idea about the savings thresholds at the time. I couldn't update savings when they dropped as ESA was telephone only, inaccessible to me. So I lost £1 per week for the whole time I was on ESA. (Not worth worrying about £1!).

    Unfortunately I was forced to endure existence for so long that I had to migrate to UC. At that point, I put the correct savings figure down for UC, which was under £6k. Didn't even consider that might go back to ESA. It was a few weeks after that I got the letter from ESA saying I needed to send statements. So the discrepancy between my initial ESA figure, and the UC start figure must have triggered the bank statement review. I now wonder whether it was triggered by a computer system, without any human input. I wish I'd simply sent a single letter saying 'no' to see what would have happened.

    I never heard anything back at all, and it's been over 12 months now, so I don't expect to hear anything and assume the review has been closed.

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