Civil Penalty and Carers Allowance and Citizenship

I have had a look at the 'good character' thread. I need to be clear about a couple of issues before I apply.

I have now received a civil penalty charge of £50, this is a new decision overriding a previous decision (which was reached on appeal) made 12 months ago. I am also being asked to repay CA monies that was not asked for in the original appeal decision.

I will be challenging the new decision but I don't expect it to go my way this time.

The reason for the oversight of not informing them was because I wasn't aware of the need to, I wasn't reading their letters properly and because my mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer and I was nursing her until she passed away. I was all over the place mentally throughout. This was over several years of short visits back home.

The letters are taking 12 days to reach me as dated by the carers allowance Dept but they want me to respond in 30 days. I am waiting for them to respond to my request for their reasons to have changed their decision so that I can ask for a review. But if I write asking for a review without knowing their reasons it will be just a restatement of the facts/evidence I gave last time. And I am less than 5 days before the 30-day deadline.

My worry now is this - will this civil penalty and needing to repay (have no real objection to repaying) prevent my citizenship? Is this something that must be declared?

My other problem involves HMRC. I have only been in receipt of carers allowance. I was told that I did not have to file a tax return. Now my worry is that I may have inadvertently made another mistake based on that advice.

Can any one please give me so good advice as to what I should do. Thank you.