To ask whether anyone here has ever been investigated by DWP for “living with a partner”?

God single parents can't win can they? Move a boyfriend in straight away and they are being selfish and not thinking of the children, live separately and they are 'rinsing the system'.

This was posted by @LangClegsInSpace on a thread on the feminism board a couple of years ago and it resonates here.

There's a reason for this and if you've never been on benefits you won't know.
If you can meet your own housing costs and bills without relying on the state then you have the luxury of forming relationships gradually. You can take your time building trust, you can sleep together as many or few nights as you please, and nobody counts, and you can keep both properties so you have your own home to go back to if it all goes horribly wrong. You can move in together, part or full time, and keep some or all of your finances separate, for a while or permanently. You can take 6 months or 20 years to fully share everything. You can go at the pace of your mutual trust and it's no-one else's business.
Women on benefits are not afforded any of those luxuries. You are either single or in a couple and there is no inbetween. If you are in a couple then you must share your home and all of your finances straight away. If you are single then you must share nothing. Any relationship grey area that normal people enjoy will get you investigated and may result in loss of income, including your rent, and so your home.
Women on benefits are normal women and so have the same relationship aspirations as everyone else but they are in a much more risky and precarious position because the benefit system forces them at an early stage into an all or nothing situation with any potential partner.
It's not that 'these womwn have the worst taste in men', it's just that they get stuck with them, having been required to share everything at far too early a stage in their relationship.
This is a huge part of why women on low incomes are vulnerable.

My neighbour went through this, they didn’t fine her but said to make sure she kept her single status he shouldn’t be staying more than 3 times in a week and mustn’t contribute to bills (food was fine apparently) he also must be registered to vote and be listed on a council tax elsewhere. I moved not long after but I think from correspondence they did move in together

My dad and his girlfriend. They took him to court over it and the gf had to pay it all back. She'd been claiming for 2 years. Ended up paying back thousands. Lucky she didn't get a prison sentence, it seems that fraud is worse than killing someone these days.

Too many people pretend they don't look very together when clearly they do 3 or 4 nights a week. Sharing meals, a bed, laundry, etc.

There’s no specific set days he can or can’t stay. It’s about if he’s contributing to the household or not

So do I need to tell the job centre I have a boyfriend? We dont live together.

I know a couple who were investigated and prosecuted. They were actually living together and did not declare it. They were found out via their facebook accounts. They were even married.

But this thread has me worried about my own situation now. I have been with my boyfriend for over 2 years. We do not live together. Do I need to tell the job centre about him? I am on benefits and claim single person discount on council tax. He stayed over last night and the night before.

I hope the people assuming this woman is committing fraud aren’t the same people that would post “but why on earth did you let him move in?!”

A single mum and a child would be very sensible to keep their home just for themselves.

I once sat on a jury in a case where a woman was being accused of benefit fraud, because she was claiming as a single person, but was accused of hav8ng a partner living with her. One of the pieces of evidence the prosecution provided was paperwork showing the man had used the woman’s address - I think it was for a loan, but it is 20+ years ago, so I have forgotten some details.

The defence contended that the woman hadn’t known that the man was using her address, and proved that you our (the jury’s) satisfaction, so she was found not guilty.

She will have received a warning or enquiring letter first. My partner is a lorry driver and can be away up to 12 weeks at a time. I was claiming tax credits when we first started seeing each other. He had his own home, but never really stayed there - he would stay here when he was back, I’d do his washing, we would have food together etc. We hadn’t been on holiday together, but had been on a few weekend trips when my mum was willing to have the kids. For context, I would receive £370 per month for help with nursery fees and then I’d receive the single person council tax.

I was (wrongly) under the impression that if they didn’t spend more than X nights per week at your house, you didn’t need to declare it. But, I received a letter in the post stating that they believed I was in a relationship. They gave examples as what could be perceived as a relationship, such as positing on social media together (which we did), going on holidays together (not quite holidays, but still), and if someone were to ask what we were to one another, would they say we were in a relationship. I felt this answer was “yes”. It said on the letter that if any of these instances were a correct example of my life, I needed to ring them and stop receiving tax credits. I did so immediately, told them how long we had been dating, and that was the end of that. So, it’s likely she’s received something similar and either ignored it or said none of it was correct.

It’s a crap system as my partner wasn’t my children’s dad. He didn’t have to contribute to my household. But as a result of us being “perceived to be a couple”, I had to ask my partner to cover my losses as I simply couldn’t afford it. Eventually he put his house up for rent and moved in - still here today and we now share bills but for over 12 month I was lucky that he could cover that shortfall for me.

Whilst I do believe you shouldn’t be claiming if you’re not single, women do have the right to date and begin relationships without that then meaning that all benefits stop. I was lucky that my partner was able to contribute, but in reality he didn’t have to - they weren’t his kids and this wasn’t his house.

It is fraudulent if he is contributing to her bills. Think about it. She's getting money from the taxpayer as a single mum and rightly so.

However, if someone is regularly contributing to her bills including her food bill then she's not entitled in the same way.

No one contributes to my food bill, only me, my work, and universal credit.
All my bills are in my name. I am the only person paying my bills.

Say I had a boyfriend, say he stayed over a night or two. That's one thing. I may make him dinner and he may even take me and my kids out for a meal.

If he was staying regularly though and chipping in on the food bill or eating with us and living as a family that’s entirely different.

They will be looking at whether you are living as a family or he's just a visitor.

Does he have post go there? Where is he registered to vote? It's also about whether another adult with earning capacity is living there. He doesn't even have to earn or contribute. Because if he's living there then he should be.

This is the assessment they do. It is not cut and dried.

It’s not about the amount someone stays. It’s measured on things like;

Do they buy food and eat meals together?
Do they do their laundry there?
Are there shared bills?
Does the person have anything on their credit report such as bank / credit card registered there.
Do friends and family consider you are living together in a relation?
What does your social media say?

All of these things are taken as a collective and a decision is made. How often someone stays the night is not relevant as a stand alone.

This guidance for DWP investigators is all available online if you dig so you can verify this.

A word of warning. Coming clean at the first opportunity is given weight when considering sanctions. As is how long any offence has been going on and the total owed.

Used to work at DWP many moons ago.
There is no rule that says you can or can't have a boyfriend if you are a single parent. Nor any rule about having a boyfriend stay over. Some of the comments on here are a bit brutal.
They will be looking at whether the relationship is akin to a married couple but the man is maintaining a second address solely for the purpose of gaining benefits.

From the Advice Now website:

“Just because your partner stays the night with you, even if they stay most nights, it doesn’t mean you are living together. If your partner still has a home somewhere else where they pay bills and keeps their things, and you make day to day decisions about your home and finances on your own, then they probably don’t count as living with you.

If you have been contacted by the benefits office because they believe you are living with your partner when they haven’t actually moved in, you will need to show them that your partner doesn’t live with you. Usually, the easiest thing to do is to prove they live somewhere else.”

Presumably he has bills registered to his home address and also GP etc are registered where he lives rather than her house.

I also know someone whos partner worked away all week so was only home Friday/Saturday nights every week - he had all his post sent to his mums house to make it look like he lived there - they were reported by a neighbour and they were investigated over a series of months, they could see exactly what was going on - she had to go to court, it was so stressful for her and she had to pay back a massive chunk of the benefits that she had received -
Its just not worth it - its only a matter of time before someone dobbs her in.

So her boyfriend likely stays with her more than half the time and she’s rinsing the state for the benefits of a single person?

id take the lot off her tbh. Top notch cheeky fucker.

How old are her children

Is his father also claiming the single person's council tax discount?