Ashcott Solicitors have become aware of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) sending out numerous letters requesting people attend for an interview under caution in respect of allegations relating to the above offence.
It appears that the DWP have highlighted what appears to be a large-scale fraud involving inappropriate applications being made for advance payments of Universal Credit.
Ashcott Solicitors have been able to identify, however, that a large number of the claimants involved, who are viewed as being “under suspicion” of effectively committing fraud against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are actually innocent parties caught in the middle of a large-scale scam.
It appears that criminal gangs of individuals are putting themselves forward as either benefits experts or even job centre or DWP employees and offering to assist individuals in financial difficulty in making a claim for an advance payment of Universal Credit.
The individual claimants are effectively duped into providing their personal details, which the fraudsters then utilise in making the claim. In certain circumstances a claim would in any event be justified, however, more often than not false details are added in order to artificially inflate the claim, or indeed false details are inserted to ensure the claim is granted, when in normal circumstances it would not have been by the Department for Work and Pensions.
Before the fraud is uncovered the fraudsters then take their agreed cut or commission from the individual claimants and it is only some months later the Department for Work and Pensions conduct an investigation and at that stage the person left carrying the can is the individual claimant, who more often than not is an innocent party.
Accordingly, those individual claimants are requested to attend for an interview under caution and quite often those interviews proceed without the presence of a solicitor, despite the allegation being one of effectively serious fraud.
Ashcott Solicitors have been able to secure public funding to cover our costs in attending at such interviews and those individual claimants who have sought our services have never been subsequently prosecuted in respect of these matters.
One further matter is that as a result of these frauds the Department for Work and Pensions then seek to obtain recovery or recoupment of the amounts advanced, usually against the original individual claimants who are still suffering financial hardship and again those without legal representation can end up paying back relatively large sums of money over a period of months thus contributing to their financial hardship. Again, Ashcott Solicitors have successfully defended any such application for recoupment or repayment of advance payments in respect of all their clients.
In the circumstances, should you receive a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions requesting you attend for an interview under caution regarding this or any other benefits overpayment matter, then we would highly recommend you contact ourselves as soon as possible.
In order to provide some flesh to the bones, we attach links below in relation to the size of the apparent fraud being committed on the Department for Work and Pensions.
What To Do Now
If you are facing an allegation of benefit fraud you need expert legal advice. Call Ashcott Solicitors today on 0161 234 0020 (Manchester) or 0203 053 8625 (London) and speak to one of our specialist criminal solicitors. Alternatively, you can send us a confidential message by clicking here.
