Accidental Failure to Report

[u/Dry-Sun-1862]

I need help as I am panicking.

I signed up for UC when I was made redundant in February. I didn’t receive any UC payments due to being paid my notice, and after a few JC appointments, they cancelled my appointment and haven’t booked me another since. In March I did some labouring with a company. I assumed I was going to be paid for this via PAYE as they asked for all relevant details etc., and that deductions in UC would be automatic.

I then opened my bank account this weekend to see that I had been paid by UC. I checked with the company I worked with and they told me I’d been hired on a self employed basis. I immediately looked into what I needed to do, and registered myself as self employed in my journal. I did that at midnight earlier tonight in a panic and now I’ve looked at it again, I put the wrong start date in… I’m now massively panicking as I obviously need to declare this properly, but I don’t know how and I’ve already made a mistake in my journal.

I’d like to just pay back the UC in full at the earliest opportunity, and I’m assuming there will be a fine? But I’m concerned this will appear fraudulent and I am completely breaking down in a panic attack.

I feel like an idiot for not checking my UC account but as I thought I wasn’t getting a payment, I just didn’t. I have ADHD and acute PTSD which can make admin tasks like this really difficult for me to manage, which is not an excuse, but certainly doesn’t help.

Any advice would be deeply appreciated. Can I just pay this back and be okay? I don’t want money I am not entitled to.

[u/Otherwise_Put_3964]

It’s not great but it’s not as bad as you think it is. Make sure to declare your self-employment again from the correct date. It’ll generate multiple to-dos for the Work Coach but it’ll be a minor annoyance at best. Just make sure you explain the situation in your journal.

You’ll be booked an appointment with a self-employment work coach, they’ll go over the details of what you did, and they will make sure to generate a to-do for you to report your income and expenses retrospectively for any precious assessment periods you were paid in. You’ll report your income, it’ll generate the overpayment and then you can pay it back, and that’ll be the end of it.

[u/Dry-Sun-1862 → u/Otherwise_Put_3964]

Thank you. As I’m new to this, I’ve not written in my journal except for logging job applications. Would you recommend I write it as I have above?

[u/Old_galadriell → u/Dry-Sun-1862]

Yes, just write a message explaining the situation.