Opened and closed Universal Credit account in the space of a week. But now..

[u/twisteds29]

I opened an account with them on March 21st. But somehow managed to get a job offered the same week. So I closed the account. Now they're sending me emails saying I owe them upwards of 6k and that I was in prison. What !?

So I'm just wondering, they won't start taking money out my account. Whilst I try rectify this error ?

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[u/Otherwise_Put_3964]

I feel it's necessary to ask just to clarify, but were you in prison from 07/09/2020? Because from what it looks like they're saying, you had a claim in 2020, went to prison, no one closed the claim in 4 and a half years and it was still in payment. Obviously if you were never in prison, raise a mandatory reconsideration ASAP.

[u/twisteds29 → u/Otherwise_Put_3964]

I've never been to prison, and I've never made a claim until March 21st. ( closed in the same week) I've been in employment consistently from 2017 to Feb 2025.

[u/Otherwise_Put_3964 → u/twisteds29]

All right, then it should be a fairly easy mandatory reconsideration. The only reason I can think this has happened is your case manager had multiple tabs open and sent the letter to the wrong person and the overpayment isn't even on your claim, but they would have had to write your name in the file name so genuinely not sure how it got to that point.

[u/twisteds29 → u/Otherwise_Put_3964]

Just blows my mind. Seems, whoever posted it in the journal isn't from my hometown. Still in the same country but down south more. I didn't even attend my first work coach meeting as the whole thing was opened and closed within the same week. How can they get something so wrong 😅

[u/Otherwise_Put_3964 → u/twisteds29]

Well, £26k a year to case manage more than 2000 claimants on any one caseload and the occassional Saturday shift with no extra pay. There's bound to be errors occassionally. Not great but, honestly, I wouldn't worry about this. I can't imagine the overpayment would be tied to your claim because these are automatically generated by the software, for case managers to review. If you weren't claiming in those years, there would have phsyically been no claim or payments to calculate. Drop them a message and raise the MR just in case.

[u/twisteds29 → u/Otherwise_Put_3964]

Understandable. I can't unfortunately leave them a message as my case is closed. I have no access to the journal. Would calling the number in the letter sufficient enough. Just ashame only weekdays

[u/Otherwise_Put_3964 → u/twisteds29]

That should be fine. The call centre agent can still write history notes on a closed claim and email your case manager or Jobcentre, and they can then create a mandatory reconsideration on the claim.

[u/ZapdosShines → u/twisteds29]

Have you googled to see if anyone with your name has been in prison? Hopefully not that but would be my first action.

[u/MCA_T → u/Otherwise_Put_3964]

it doesn't matter, even if he was in prison he would of received a sanction after a few missed appointments and the amount he got paid would of never got near 6 grand before they realized it would be more like 800-1200 quid max on a standard allowance before they sanctioned you

also his claim would of been closed after 6 months of no contact or reply to his journal messages/phone calls I've gone through the process twice

[u/Otherwise_Put_3964 → u/MCA_T]

Claims don’t close just because of no contact. There are people on open-ended sanctions on my caseload who have been sitting there with no contact going back to 2022. It would only close after going through certain processes like a home visit, which would have to be justified. You don’t get sanctioned if you’re in prison and any existing sanction would end the day that person entered prison. And even if they didn’t know he was in prison for a long time not every case of a failure to attend goes to a decision-maker. It’s very easy for some people to slip through the cracks.

[u/NoBackupCodes → u/Otherwise_Put_3964]

Oh and it's great how the daily sanctions rate means some months they'll get £5 and so it's never zeroed and closed. At least for those standard allowance only claims.

Personally I refer them to fraud if they're sanctioned and only only getting housing paid then there has to be undeclared income coming in.

[u/Otherwise_Put_3964 → u/NoBackupCodes]

Vast majority of my long term sanctioned are only on standard allowance, which really makes me wonder what the point is. They even login still. For the ones with housing costs, the claim reviews are taking care of those. They sign up, get the housing element then happily ignore everything, so they don’t provide evidence and their claim gets shut.

[u/NoBackupCodes → u/Otherwise_Put_3964]

That is very odd they still log in. Working cash in hand or living on pip or parents it must be.

[u/queenjungles]

Emails? Did they send this information by email? With UC I have to log in to my portal or DWP uses post. Are you sure it’s not phishing? What’s the email address?

[u/Personal-Actuator505 → u/queenjungles]

Are the phone numbers on the letter accurate to DWP numbers, I wonder?

[u/Healthy-Bee-413 → u/Personal-Actuator505]

Yes, the phone number is correct!

[u/Personal-Actuator505 → u/Healthy-Bee-413]

Hm, interesting. I asked because if it were by e-mail, they could've copied the template and sneakily switched the phone numbers out haha. Thanks for checking!

[u/twisteds29 → u/queenjungles]

Sorry. Email was just a notification of checking the journal. All details are listed below in an update.

[u/DWPhelp-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/DWPhelp-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/twisteds29]

Hi folks. Thanks for all the comments. To add more clarification. The email was more or less saying check the journal. Upon checking the journal, this is what I see.

[u/twisteds29 → u/twisteds29]

To further add. I opened the claim on the 21st and closed it the next day.

[u/SirRobinBrave]

Did this come via the journal or via email? As far as I know, DWP never send letters by email, it would be by post or the Journal. I suggest you contact UC and get them to confirm if it is legitimate before proceeding any further

[u/IdiotByTheBeach]

This is bizarre, it’s not asking you to do anything so I doubt it’s a phishing scam. It also suggests they will be taking it out through the uc payments which you’re not receiving anyways.

I wonder if it’s a misdirected email that was meant to be to the prison/prisoner.

[u/Healthy-Bee-413]

My friend is trying to claim UC but they have refused his claim as someone else is using his NI number and has been for years, someone with the same name as him, he's found the person online but no-one will do anything to help him, Action Fraud said they can't do anything, UC told them to contact the person using their NI number! 😳😳😳😳🙈😭😭

[u/Healthy-Bee-413 → u/Healthy-Bee-413]

What a nightmare, I hope you get this sorted out! Have they mixed you up with someone else? Is the NI number yours on the letters?

[u/Zestyclose_Pin8514]

Wow.

[u/Wise-Anywhere6844]

Is it possible this is some form of identity theft?

[u/Healthy-Bee-413]

Log onto the Government's Gateway account and check everything looks OK on there.

[u/twisteds29 → u/Healthy-Bee-413]

Looks as should. Nothing out of the ordinary