I Think Dwp Are Investigating Me. Should I Tell Them Or Ask If They Are? Are They Allowed To Tell My Employer?

[scruffbag]

Hello,
I claim PIP, but feel someone has been following me for months, watching me etc.
I don’t know what to do. Please help. Many thanks.

[wolf63]

If you have claimed PIP and have been correctly awarded it why do you feel that the DWP are investigating you?

Has there been a change in your health or in your circumstances? Do you feel that you should not be receiving this benefit?

The DWP have sections that deal with fraudulent claims and these investigators may watch you so if you are defrauding the government it may be them who are watching you.

Yes, they will contact your employer if they are convinced that you are receiving benefits that you are not entitled to.

[barry1010]

Why are you concerned about them telling your employer?

[barry1010]

There is not a lot you can do - the DWP won't tell you if they are investigating you.
Has anything happened that could have triggered an investigation? Perhaps you have been abroad for a holiday when you told them in your claim that travel is impossible for you. Has your medication/treatment changed?

Can you remember having to unexpectedly complete a form for the DWP confirming that your circumstances haven't changed? I suspect, but don't know as fact, that if you are reported to DWP they send such a form out so they have a recent record of your health problems.

If you have any mental health issues could this be a mild paranoia that you need to talk to your doctor about?

[youngmafbog]

If you have done nothing wrong then you have little to worry about.

The DWP would not waste a lot of time following someone for a bit of PiP unless they have some solid leads. Even then they only need a couple of photos and they would be off to the next punter.

[barry1010]

They need a lot more than a couple of photos, anyone can claim 'they were having a good day'. The DWP need to show that contradictions to the claim are repeatedly occurring over a period of time - they have even filmed claimants abroad on holiday. I have seen footage of them filming the same person wearing a t shirt and shorts drinking outside a pub in the summer and shovelling snow in the winter.

[youngmafbog]

They would not have followed them for 6 months or more solidly.

[barry1010]

Not solidly, no.

[barry1010]

'A bit of PIP' can be £172 a week, tax free, £8944 a year. Some people will be claiming it for life, it doesn't end when you get state pension. That bit of PIP can add up to a whole lot of PIP.

[Peter Pedant]

You do nothing
On the simple grounds that if they are investigating you, and you ask if they are: they are unlikely to stop.

They also dont really FOLLOW people around. Were you given PIP because of psychological problems? ( mine was cancer). And yes I did get video'd - and it was obvious that I cdnt cope in public. I heard nothing.

I also had an interview - for which you need a 'friend'. They ask 'hard questions': "You say you have sent us a letter saying you may have cancer" - Me: yes it is a letter to my GP from the cancer doctors at Christie".

I had no control over any of this. - You just wait and see. The govt has save money and are helped by neighbours who write in and say: he doesnt have cancer you know - he is pretending

all part of life

[Peter Pedant]

Look on it as a reassessment of PIP
which you know they are kinda allowed to do.

Mine was more like: christ which bit of me do you think is working OK ?

[10ClarionSt]

Regardless of what people say, the DWP will only investigate someone after being tipped off about them. In most cases, claimants give themselves away by boasting about the benefits they receive. In those situations, you can bet that someone will be riled by it, and report them. There is nothing to stop you asking your employer if the DWP have been asking questions about you.

[Peter Pedant]

The DWP would not waste a lot of time following someone for a bit of PIP unless they have some solid leads.

that is correct: I fell off a kerb ( again) painful. and a car door opened and a man got out with a camera.... ( and I thought Oh, my dear neighbours again)