Mfamily

We're afraid now and don't know what should we tell them? Any help please!!
My wife thought I'm not allowed to take public funds so that's why she didn't add me on her UC.

christmasoompa

You tell them the truth. You tell them you made a mistake, that your application should have been joint and that you have xxxx amount of savings so now realise you shouldn't have been claiming UC. This is only going to be a big problem if you aren't honest with them, you need to come clean before they find out, it will be far worse if you don't raise this.

Mfamily

She's going to tell she thinks she did a mistake because she didn't know she had to add her husband's name on UC. So now she read somewhere or told her friend that you had to add your husband's name on UC. She was thinking that her husband is not allowed public funds so he can't be add on UC account. Now we both have savings more than 16k so we can't claim benefitsIs this ok or needs to add something?

christmasoompa

That seems to cover it.

Mfamily

Can we just send them mail or we have to call them because she's so nervous she can't talk in this situation.

christmasoompa

She should be able to contact them via her online account, I don't think I'd risk leaving it to an email that might not reach the right person. Or can you phone them together and you speak if needed?

Mfamily

She was going to send them via her online account but when she added me on her UC now there's coming that we need to fill all the forms again. And we want to contact them before filling forms or we'll tell them we don't need to fill forms because we're not eligible for UC

christmasoompa

Ok, so you mentioned a case manager earlier, why not just phone them?

spouse of scouse

For clarity, your wife not being aware that she had to include your name, income and assets in her application for UC is only one part of the problem.

From your previous posts, which I looked at so I could be certain that the advice I'm giving was corrrect, you and your wife had approx. GBP62,500 in a joint account in Pakistan from at least March 2019. So even if your wife advises whoever she speaks with that she wasn't aware that she had to add any details about you on her UC application, she'll still need to explain why she didn't declare her 50% of the savings in that account. This is also an important matter, as those savings would seem to make her ineligible for UC.

I'm not trying to frighten you, I just want to make sure that you're aware of all the issues. Go with the advice you've been given, contact them as soon as possible. The person you/your wife speaks with isn't going to bite your head/s off, they've heard it all before.

Mfamily

That savings was mine but it was in our joint account i put that money in because of visa purposes and i was in Pakistan and used to use that account. That's why she didn't realize that she had to mention it while applying UC.

Mfamily

She called them and said them that she made a mistake that she didn't add husband's name on her account and the lady said it's ok you can add now and my wife replied both of ours savings are more than 16k and explained to her that she tried to add her husband's name and after adding code they are asking to fill all the forms again and our savings are more than 16k
she said she can delete ours account or when you'll fill forms if you'll put in forms your savings more than 16k your account will be deleted automatically. And she didn't even ask my wife about her details.
So should we tell them to delete our UC account or should we fill that forms and put our savings there?

christmasoompa

Up to you. I think I’d fill forms in just so you have written evidence that you tried to correct your mistake. Just to be clear, did your wife tell them that you’ve been living with her since xxxxx (whatever the date is, presumably a good few years)? She needs to make sure they know that, so she can’t be accused of fraud in the future.

Mfamily

We filled four or 5 section of forms and there is a question when did your partner started living with you in that section we wrote exact date of my living with my wife.
can we just call them and say them to close our case because we don't know how to fill rest of the forms?

christmasoompa

I wouldn't personally. If they do that and you haven't explicitly said when you started living together and how much you have in savings, then there is a risk that they'll think your wife made a fraudulent application if they find out at a later date. And she really, really doesn't want to be done for benefit fraud! So you need to be completely transparent with them and ideally put it in writing so they can see she's trying to correct her mistake.

Why can't you fill in the rest of the forms? Just put the date you did start living together, even if that was years ago.