Is it ever OK to report anyone?

I never speak to them, so no idea. Bu I have heard them talk about me and benefits so they must just assume.

I'm more confused at why people seen to broadcast their financial situations. Its no one else's business

How do your neighbors know you are on benefits? Mine don't even know my name!

You wouldn't be scared of having your partner stay at your house though if you didn't live in a culture where people are reporting people they suspect of benefit fraud when they might not even be committing benefit fraud.

It's this idea that it's acceptable to be reporting on people in this way that means you are too worried to do something you are literally allowed to do.

Personally I'd rather live in a society where people don't try and shit on each other by reporting people and therefore people on benefits don't have to worry in this way about being reported for no reason.

@Crumpleton but how many threads have there been on MN where an OP has been terrified to go out shopping or for a meal whilst off sick, for fear of being reported? Not long ago there was one where OP was legitimately off sick but was seen on the sidelines of a football match where their DC was playing, was reported by a 'colleague' and there was a whole stressful investigation. And a lot of posters sided with the employer.

The fact is that if you are ill and on benefits in the UK, you are subject to the scrutiny of malicious curtain twitchers and the DWP will come down on you like a tonne of bricks if there's a report.

Well then you clearly did not read the posts I was replying to then because you have replied to something without the context of the post you have replied to which was relevant to the conversation

"Grassing" is what happens in school playgrounds!

Nowhere in my post, which I stated that it was self inflicted did I suggest that anyone was committing benifit fraud...
Or anything about holidays...

Typical of a handful of MN's
you yourself have every right to turn an observation into something else, write what you will, but you have absolutely no right to say it's what I'm suggesting or even thinking especially when I haven't.

My DP is facing homelessness, and I can't move him in with me as I would lose my UC entitlement (and 100% relying on a bloke is bad).... so if I knew for certain that someone was claiming to live alone and claiming benefits on the back of that, but wasn't, yes I would report them.
I am too scared to have my DP stay over more than once a week (yes, I know there is no such thing as a limit), but I have already heard my gossipy neighbour talk about us.

I am a stickler for rules.... and I would report because I pay out of pocket for things that some people just think is optional when it is not.

I also nearly reported my own father for drink driving. He picked up me and my mum from an airport and was steaming drunk. My mum talked me out of it.

I have reported someone to the council for burning foul smelling rubbish on an almost nightly basis during the summer. The council went round to see him and it stopped. Another neighbour had already gone to speak to him and there had already been multiple posts on a local Facebook that he is on, so he had several chances to stop.

Reporting someone for no TV licence? Absolutely not. It has no impact on my life.

You replied saying that if going on a ski holiday would make you be stuck in bed for 2 weeks then that is self inflicted. This was in response to me saying someone going on a ski holiday doesn't mean they are not disabled or ill and therefore is not an indicator that they are committing benefit fraud and you shouldn't be reporting people on the basis of stuff like that.

So yes you are suggesting people shouldn't have holidays if they are genuinely too sick to work as you have implied the not being able to work is self inflicted. It's far more complicated then that.

Yep. It is cruel

So I am meant to live a miserable life not doing anything incase some random decides to take it upon them selves to decide that I can't be as ill as I actually am or that my illness is self inflicted because I actually try to live my life a little and report me to the benefits office and completely upturn my life all because they are bitter about the poverty line level money I have to live on. 😐 It's messed up people have this attitude. It's vile.

This idea that sick people have to just be sick and not live their lives at all otherwise they are undeserving of support is harmful. I'm not going to begrudge a disabled or sick person a holiday just because it makes them feel worse after.

Can't recall suggesting you, or anyone else shouldn't have a holiday.

This idea that sick people have to just be sick and not live their lives at all otherwise they are undeserving of support is harmful.

I would argue that it is more than harmful. It's cruel. It's callous. It's utterly immoral.

There are a lot of people on this thread who need to look at themselves in the mirror and decide whether this is where their moral compass really points.

If I didn't push myself past my limits and accept the fall out from it my entire life becomes very very small which then triggers really severe depression.

For 2 years I paced exactly as I was advised. Never doing anything that caused me a symptom flair up. I barely did anything. Barely left the house. Didn't get any better for it. Just got really mentally unwell as well as physically unwell which then made working even less likely because I was too mentally sick as well.

Deciding to not live like that saved my life. I'll take being stuck in bed for 2 weeks to experience snippets of life. So I will go for a weekend away or go to an event I have been invited to and accept the fact that I will have to recover from that.

My physical health is no better then it was but by letting myself still live life atleast I am no longer suicidal. I've never been skiing but if someone invited me to skiing in the the Alps for 5 days I would absolutely go and accept the fatigue fall out because I want to live life and not be completely defined by being sick with nothing to live for.

This idea that sick people have to just be sick and not live their lives at all otherwise they are undeserving of support is harmful. I'm not going to begrudge a disabled or sick person a holiday just because it makes them feel worse after.

Many disabled people have conditions where they could push themselves for a short 5 day skiing holiday and then end up in bed for 2 weeks due to how ill that made them and therefore weekly work like that isn't accessible to them.

If you know you're pushing yourself to such limits where you're going to end up in bed for 2 weeks its self inflicted pain.

Abuse and animal cruelty - absolutely. Anything else, no.

There was a period where I was on benefits, lying to the job centre about applying for jobs when I wasn't. You could say I was committing fraud, but actually I was experiencing autism burnout I just wasn't aware I even have autism at the time. If anyone reported me my life would have been ruined. You never know what other people are silently going through.

My thoughts exactly.

I don't think "I did it so why can't you" is a very helpful attitude to have. People have different levels of what they can cope with and disability and chronic illness is far more complicated then that. Furthermore the system does not support people trying to do a little something with out penalising you so people end up on situations where they can't try for fear of triggering a financial crisis.

@Universalsnail I don't agree with the opinion either.

If I can stay on my feet through cancer diagnosis, on my own, deal with the shock & fear, carry on working through surgery, chemo & radiotherapy, commuting, losing my hair, care for my son full time then I don't see why a lot of others can't make more of an effort.

I'm not driving myself on to pay for someone less poorly than me to sit on their bum.

8 million between 18 & 64 aren't economically active. At a guess I'd say a third of those could do something (even part time) to help themselves but they chose not to.

I am using the term "grassing" because that's the slang term everyone else is using in this thread. It's just a slang term for reporting. The opinion is still the same.

@Universalsnail 'Grassing is wrong'

Grassing ?!!? How old are you? 12? 🙄

Mean reporting benefit fraud? How is that mean ? What's mean is scamming taxpayers as a benefit fraudster

Would you feel mean for reporting someone stealing from your bank account?

Unless you magically have access to another person's medical records though there is absolutely no way you could know whether someone has the conditions they have that they are claiming for. Many disabled people have fluctuating conditions and put on a massive act to seem less disabled then they are to the people they meet. Many disabled people have conditions where they could push themselves for a short 5 day skiing holiday and then end up in bed for 2 weeks due to how ill that made them and therefore weekly work like that isn't accessible to them. The wording of the assessment for PIP is being able to do something consistently and reliably.

You just have no way of knowing and you could destroy someone's life by reporting them.