Paranoia

I'm paranoid most of the time.  Sometimes its justified,  such as workmates laughing behind my back and employers plotting to fire me.

My latest paranoia is thst the DWP is investigating me for benefit fraud.   They've demanded that I send them four months of bank statements,  both current and savings accounts, showing all transactions.  Plus proof of address such as a utility bill.  Plus my tenancy agreement signed by all relevant parties.   I had to do the same just two and a half years ago.  Do they think that I'm some kind of secret millionaire?

sadly there is a lot of fraud, so they are doing their jobs. Just send what they ask for and keep this in mind. This will help you maintain your mental health.

sadly there is a lot of fraud, so they are doing their jobs. Just send what they ask for and keep this in mind. This will help you maintain your mental health.

The only time my family was overpaid benefits was back in 1980.

My father was made redundant and I was filling out the forms for his claim for unemployment benefit because he was illiterate.  My mother joked that we should include the cat as a dependent. 

So I filled the form out.

1. Name,    Cat.  We didn't belive in giving pets names.
2. Relationship to you,  Pet.
3. Date of birth,   it was a stray so I put the approximate date it arrived.
4. Special needs,   I wrote, it eats a lot.

Six weeks later, blank versions of the same forms arrived by post with instructions to fill them in  again.  My father took the forms to a professional social worker to complete and we received less money after that.

There does seem to be a lot of benefit fraud, but do they have to treat everyone like a criminal and if they find all is as it should be and continue paying your benefit, why are you left with the feeling that its because they'e not found enough evidence against you? Most people have enough trouble getting the benefits the law says they're entitled too, let alone defrauding the DWP intentionally, I honestly don't know how people do it? What seems wrong to me is that if they "over pay" you because of thier mistakes you are the one thats treated as a criminal for not returning money you didn't know you shouldn't have.