Legal Advice - Interview Under Caution

[maltaseagull]

First off, thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread; to those I had direct contact with, I am extremely grateful for your time and practical goodwill. Given that the *only* people I shared this experience with were my two character referees and a solicitor, having input from here, in all its guises, was a big ol' pressure release. Thanks.

I've just today signed an agreement with the council, an admin penalty, which essentially is repayment and a fine - and their promise not to prosecute, due to my 'previous good character', something which I suspect was bolstered by my rather unorganised efforts to produce requested financial documents in an orderly and timely fashion. But who knows. The point is, is that it's over.

After talking to people through NSC, I did instruct a solicitor from the off, who was as pretty spectacularly informed about the Land of Law as I was utterly ignorant of it, and which remains to me a completely undiscovered country. I do remember being rather unnerved on realising that she didn't need to believe whether or not I was telling her the truth - it was after all a numbers and dates game, with a couple of character references thrown in to address the 'human' side of things.

As many of you suggested might happen, they did delve pretty thoroughly: statements from the past 18 months, an explanation for every drop of income (for example, I have a savings account with £1 in it, and the resulting penny of interest it annually produces alerted them to ask for proof and paperwork and statements), from birthday cheques to repayments from friends for football tickets etc etc. When one doesn't ever expect to ever have to have this information ready for the asking, ever, it is bizarrely a bit upsetting and disorientating to be saddled with umpteen demands for this/that/the other.

So today. The amount overpaid to me was around £2,500 which exceeded the council's own threshold for when they automatically prosecute or not. I count myself *extremely* fortunate that they haven't. The admin penalty is a percentage of the overpayment, again set independently by the council. 50%, in my case. Legal advice cost around £1,200. A very expensive lesson learned.


Thanks again to all who inadvertently or otherwise helped me deal with this at the beginning. And to the rest of us, don't be as financially irresponsible as I retrospectively realised I was being. It isn't, for one second, worth it.

Cheers all.

Glad it turned out reasonably ok. Expensive, but at least no prosecution.

 

[vegster]

I know someone who was over paid benefits as he had not declared some savings he had. Long story/short, they decided he was deceitful rather than forgetful and was fined and ordered to pay back about £1500. His benefits were cancelled and he was told he had to re apply from scratch, as he was not brilliantly clever he asked myself and a friend to help him fill out the massive application booklet.

When we got to the section " Savings " we asked him how much he had saved and where so we could put it down... he said " Don't tell them I've got savings or I won't get benefit " " besides, they have only just done me so they won't check "

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Best result all round , it has cost you a lot but you've avoided having a criminal record tag for the rest of your life.

 

[willalbion]

Years ago when I was about 18, I was signing on and getting HB, I started part time work in a pub, I was a big stoner - the council busted me for undeclared income, I was stupid (stoned) and lazy (stoned) as opposed to fraudulent - I of course admitted liability in the interview, explained I was retarded and wished to pay the money back, they accepted this and a payment plan was agreed. Don't fret too much.

 

[Billy the Fish]

I know someone who was over paid benefits as he had not declared some savings he had. Long story/short, they decided he was deceitful rather than forgetful and was fined and ordered to pay back about £1500. His benefits were cancelled and he was told he had to re apply from scratch, as he was not brilliantly clever he asked myself and a friend to help him fill out the massive application booklet.

When we got to the section " Savings " we asked him how much he had saved and where so we could put it down... he said " Don't tell them I've got savings or I won't get benefit " " besides, they have only just done me so they won't check "

Amazing!