Lost track of savings amount, over 6k: what to do?

Hi all

I'm on income-based ESA (Support Group), and PIP. I have had a difficult time over recent months and have taken my eye of the ball with regard to my savings. I've now checked and discovered that for about 4 months now my savings have been over 6k; for a brief period they edged just over 2k above this limit.

I was about to write a letter to the DWP and my local Council to notify them of this. However, I've stopped short as, in looking into what best to do about the issue, I've read some horror stories on online forums about people being hammered by 'bloodthirsty' DWP representatives even when they have willingly provided information in such circumstances; I've also read that, apparently, the case is seen as particularly serious if claimants have gone more than 2k over the 6k limit.

What I really want to do is come clean, provide bank statements for the relevant period, apologise for the oversight and ask that the DWP and Council take the required amount of money back from me.

Is this the best thing to do?
Or are there any better options?
If it will lead to some kind of heavy investigation/prosecution then I don't know if I'd be able to withstand the stress of it at present.

Also:

is it the case that my oversight will be dealt with more punitively on account of my briefly having gone more than 2k over the 6k limit?

How much time's worth of bank statements should I supply? How far back do the DWP/Council usually want to see statements for?

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Do you need any appliances that need updating, or a new bed? Maybe you need a mobility scooter or an upgrade first before you declare anything. I'm not advocating breaking the law I'm suggesting you may need the money first for these things before you go ahead. This happened to me and I was allowed to purchase a car, but they will take the overpayment back. They only knew about my over savings because they were alerted by HMRC , they knew by the interest that was paid to my account. So if it's spent before the interest is due to go on then how would they know? I had to pay for 3 years worth of statements at around £5 per statement and they don't pay for those you have to.

Many thanks Gordon.

I just want to clarify something I didn't quite understand fully in your reply: you say that you "would not offer any additional at this time" - do I understand from this that you would suggest NOT sending any copies of statements etc?
Or just a current statement?

Should I just inform them of my current balance, and not go into the history (though I guess they have facility to check the account, either by asking me for statements or by some other means, and see what my balance has been historically anyway?).

One other thing: is there a possibility that they may look at aspects of the spending pattern on my statement e.g. "you've been to the link machine on these occasions, so we can see you've been able to get out and about", and decide to review my eligibility for benefits? (I have a chronic muscular/nerve pain problem which is erratic but often makes getting about either painful or impossible; that said my ATM is only round the corner ...).

Thanks in advance once again.

I'm a bit confused as to why I would be advised NOT to send bank statements yet. I know that mods are not back until Monday - but does anyone else have an idea as to why this would be? Surely the DWP will request bank statements in due course anyway? I think I'd rather give them what is necessary now than have them see reason to look over more f my account history than necessary, just from a privacy point of view.