Reporting historic benefit fraud…

It will not involve you being accused of anything. You didn't make the benefit claim

But I have to agree with another poster that your post suggests to me that, actually, you are just out for revenge and dressing it up as concern that you will be implicated. Just block her and move on

The police have better things to do than this! They won't give a toss.

And neither will the DWP.

Just move on with your life FGS.

OP you have been told over and over again that you won’t be in trouble as you’ve not signed anything or played any part in committing benefit fraud. What you’re talking about is aiding and abetting and it’s very difficult to prove even when the other party is guilty. It’s clear to see from your statement that you’ve been paying rent so that would speak volumes for the fact that you were a lodger and therefore very much not “in” on it as you haven’t gained from it at all unlike her and her partner. For goodness sake now just drop it, block your friend and move on. No point in keeping going over a situation in your head that is never going to happen. If you report her it will be her children that suffer. You don’t need to do this, you can just go and live your life and put this behind you.

No you wouldn’t.

Sounds like you are just trying to come up with a proper reason to do it.

How would they prove he didn’t live there all those years ago?

Save the message as evidence. Probably very unlikely it would ever be looked into- too busy dealing with current benefit fraudulent i’d think.

She deserves to be reported imo. Probably still committing benefit fraud now.

So she let you pay her a pittance while she fed and housed you and treated you like part of her family for almost a decade and this is how you repay her? You have zero evidence of what she was claiming and for how long but you're happy to go running to HMRC and tell on her to protect yourself from them despite them not even knowing about it? You're appalling.

I hate when people claim single parent to get extra benefits, like they have no comprehension of what it’s like to live like a single parent yet they claim and have their partners finances and live a nice little life.

but I wouldn’t report them, no. It’s historic and you seem to only want to do it out of spite because you’ve fallen out. They done you a favour and allowed you to live with them and what she said might have been true. I’d just leave it and move on with your life

The only person who gets in trouble for a false claim is the person who signs the form.

Thats one of the reasons it's quite a common thing for abusive partners to do - I've known several cases through citizens advice where women want to leave, but the partner is holding over them that they'll report for a fraudulent benefit claim (usually where it hasn't been changed back after a previous attempt at separation failed).

Even if you were in on it there's no means to prosecute you as you didn't claim anything, didn't declare anything.

Why not go the whole way and report her to the DWP for benefits fraud, the council for council tax and possibly housing benefit fraud and HMRC for failing to declare the income she 'earned' from your rent payments?

Surely time to block contact and live your own life. Revenge is overrated.

It’s her claim so her issue. You didn’t know kingly enter into fraud nor did you benefit from it. As others have said I seriously doubt she’s going to dob herself in.

As someone else said, personally I would find it hard having that weighing in my conscience that she had broken the law, that I knew and then didn’t do anything about it. Unfortunately I kinda live in a world where we can’t just pick and choose the laws we want to apply to us when it suits us (and yeah I get you didn’t do anything wrong and you can leave well enough alone but two wrongs don’t make a right).

But to your point, I don’t think there is anything to worry about.

And theft should be a police matter but of course it ‘reporting it’ is just to jobsworth civil servants who won’t bother - too much effort.

She should be reported - this is theft!

well, you will definitely get in trouble for it if you report her, because they'll definitely know then and if she's going down she'll probably want to take you with her

Report it, too many people get away with benefit fraud and many people on MN seem to condone it, anyone who even thinks about reporting someone is 'spiteful' or nasty or taking food from the children etc, but the benefit cheats are just thieves, however much people try to gloss over it..

Why did you live with your friend for 9 years?

You are being silly now.

You are in the clear. No sane person would believe your false piety.

IF YOU ARE ON UNIVERSAL CREDIT
The situation for Universal Credit claimants with lodgers is almost totally different as the rental income you receive is not counted as income but your lodger or lodgers also don’t count when your bedroom entitlement is calculated.

What a scumbag she is.

You want revenge and to hurt her OP. It won't make you feel good.

You got a decent ride for nearly a decade. Let it go.

Not a police matter, and you were not the claimant so not to blame for any benefits SHE misclaimed. Don't allow her harassment of you to feed your paranoia. I am 100% certain this is none of your business, so just block her and do nothing else.