Universal Credit Bank Reviews: Frequently Asked Questions

hiii, found this and i am looking for a bif of advice.

i am almost 19 and have been claiming universal credit since november 2025, i just got a message about having a claim review introduction on june 4th and i am a bit worried after researching ! i was never told any of how universal credit works; i applied and then had someone phone me to confirm my identity, and then all the rest was done through a family member as i also claim pip and have been since 2023 (and before that i was on the child equivalent of it) and the familt member is currently my appointee for that. the message i got told me to check my journal for more details, and i was confused because i didn’t know this journal was a thing until yesterday when i found out about it and actually looked. my call says it is supposed to last for 15 minutes, but like i have seen other people say mine does not tell me i need to show any bank statements or id.

anyway, what i am worried about is that my current account is above 6k by a little bit and i did not realise that i had to tell the universal credit people about this. i take things very literally, so when i would heard people talking about “over in 6k savings”, i always assumed that meant only in an actual savings account. found out the other day it wasnt after researching and now i am a bit panicking because its been permanently over 6k by a couple hundred since january, and i don’t want them to think i was intentionally not telling them or anything like that, it really was just a huge misunderstanding and be not being correctly informed !!! i don’t really mind if they do the reducent thing or the penalty fee because i understand, but im more just worried about them intentionally thinking i was trying to commit fraud or something when i genuinely didnt know or realise any of this 😭😭😭 i have really bad anxiety anyway so this is not helping at all and also i have no idea on what the questions they will ask and i feel silly for explaining that i knew it was over 6k and didnt report it to them because i didnt realise they meant not just in a savings account

ok hello, i found this and i am looking for a bit of advice. i am almost 19 and have been claiming universal credit since november 2025, and i just got a message about my first review its called a claim review introduction and i am a bit worried ! i haven’t been told i need to upload bank statements or id like other people.

i applied for universal credit and then had a phone call to confirm my identity, and then all of the rest was handled with a family member as i also haved claim pip since 2023 (and before that i was on the child equivalent of it), and that family member is currently the apppointee for my pip. i was never told how it really works i didn’t even know about the journal thing until i got the meassage and checked it out for the first time.

anyway, i am a bit worried because my current account is over 6k by a little and i didn’t realise this was something i had to tell them until i was researching the other day after getting the message about the appointment. i take things very literally so when i would hear people say “over 6k in savings”, i always assumed they meant in an actual savings account. but obviously i have now found they don’t mean that (very confusing to me) and i am a bit panicking because i don’t want them to think i was intentionally not reporting it or anything, it really was just a huge misunderstanding ! but im worried because i feel so silly saying oh yeah i knew i had over 6k but didnt realise i had to report it as it wasn’t in an actual savings account 😭😭😭 i have bad anxiety anyway so this is not helping at all and i am just worried about what questions they will ask and also think i was purposely trying to do something wrong when i genuinely didn’t know anything about it ☹️

only since around january this year, they are currently around 6.3k and the highest they’ve been is probably around 6.5k. i dont really mind about them reducing it or if i have to pay some back, just worried about how they will react to it and think i didn’t tell them on purpose since it has been quite a few months of it being over. should i wait for the phone call to tell them or post it on my journal now? im just sooo extra worried now