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Original poster

Shopping a benefit cheat

24 replies

Gatecrasher61 · 14/10/2015 08:59

Someone I know is cheating the benefit system. Firstly they work 12 hours a week, but have lied to the benefit office to say they work 16 hours so they can claim Working Tax Credits. They have then worked for cash in hand and not declared it.

They have a 14 year old daughter, so there is nothing really stopping her working full time especially as she only has the daughter at weekends. Her ex husband has custody during the week although she seems to get benefits for having her daughter as well.

I have a dilemma as to whether I should shop her to HMRC. It annoys me that she is cheating the system when we work so hard. However I am not comfortable as to whether I am doing it out of spite or because what she is doing is wrong. Plus we live in a small village, so there is a chance that she could work out it was me who shopped her.

Has anyone reported a benefit cheat? How did it go.

OP posts:

Verypissedoffwife · 14/10/2015 09:03

No I wouldn't. It's very sneaky. If you feel so strongly about it and are so sure you are morally right then tell her before you report her.

NoisyOyster · 14/10/2015 09:24

I would report her. It's the small cases such as these why the media are so against benefits "they're all cheating the system etc"

Stop her cheating it now

Starspread · 14/10/2015 09:44

I wouldn't. Honestly, I doubt she's exactly raking it in; it sounds like she's probably only just keeping her head above water. Given the increasing restrictions on who can claim benefits and how (meaning lots of 'worthy' people are left struggling) I'm afraid I find it hard to get worked up about people managing to find a few extra quid for themselves and their family - and hey, if she was rich and had a flashy accountant working out how to minimise her tax payments, that would be a different story ;)

I admit that's my personal take on it though, and is based only on what you've said here - it's harder to be objective if it's someone you know (and dislike!).

Alfieisnoisy · 14/10/2015 10:09

Firstly I'd be very clear that you base any report on evidence. How do you know the details of what hours she is working vs what she has told the tax credit office.

Secondly it's swings and roundabouts, if she tells them she works 16 hrs to claim working tax credits then she loses prescription support and all the other things she'd get without it.
Ironically she would possibly be entitled to slightly more if she was honest.

Personally it upsets me that people defraud as it tars those of us who HAVE to claim with the same brush.

Lurkedforever1 · 14/10/2015 10:21

If she's working cash in hand then inland revenue won't pay working tax credit if there is no record of her earning anything. You can ring them and say 'I earn x' and they will pay out on it, but they do ask for proof too. Or half the country could ring up saying they only earn £6k and get the maximum no questions asked.
Nor does it make sense any other way. Her housing benefit etc will be cut or reduced if she says she's working when she's not.
If you were working cash in hand and committing fraud, doing it that way would make no sense. You'd just claim jsa and housing benefit etc and then work cash in hand. Not tell inland revenue of all people you're working if it's cash in hand.

Leave well alone. If she's cash in hand tax credits will find out themselves when they ask for proof of income for the working tax credit. And from what you say either she's the most stupid benefit fraudster ever, or you don't know the facts.

KatharineClifton · 14/10/2015 10:25

I'm torn really. As a pp says above, she's hardly raking it in. But, HMRC do compliance check claims on a wide scale, and when your acquaintance gets caught up in one of these, which she is very likely to be, she will have to pay the whole lot back.

I don't really understand your OP though. She works 12 hours declared, then more undeclared - is that it? So she works over 16 hours so is entitled to tax credits. It's Income Tax and NI that she should be paying that is the issue here isn't it?

ToTheGups · 14/10/2015 10:30

How do you know so many details about what she is claiming and the information she has disclosed to hmrc?

LineyReborn · 14/10/2015 10:32

Surely at 16 hours a week she'd have to be earning well over £8 an hour to be eligible to pay NI and over £12 to pay income tax?

Doesn't make sense to me. Unless she's well paid and working lots of hours. Then it still doesn't make sense.

MushroomMama · 14/10/2015 10:34

We had to prove our income so I don't know how she's doing it if that's the case.

Honestly leave it well alone you need cold hard evidence which I feel you don't have or you're basing your evidence on Chinese whispers correct me if I'm wrong on that

PeppasNanna · 14/10/2015 10:36

No. Your reporting her out of spite.

gandalf456 · 14/10/2015 10:38

I wouldn't because I would be doing it all for the wrong reasons. Also, if you are wrong, they will stop her benefits anyway while they investigate so she would suffer undue hardship for no reason

KatharineClifton · 14/10/2015 10:40

Depends on how many extra hours she's working LineyReborn. None of the op really makes sense.

stuckinahole · 14/10/2015 11:10

I wouldn't. Karma will bite the butt. Also, none of your business.

NahItsOkTa · 14/10/2015 11:26

Keep out of other people's business. Get a hobby.

Original poster

Gatecrasher61 · 14/10/2015 12:24

Actually, the extra job was not cash in hand, she had to give them an invoice and the money was paid into her bank. It was not declared to the benefits office.

I know this because she brags about it. Straight from the horse's mouth. So either she is lying or she is a silly cow.

OP posts:

LisbethSalandersLaptop · 14/10/2015 12:29

It is really none of your business. And you don't want to report her for 'the greater good' but because you are feeling spiteful and you don't like her.

Do you really care about a single mother making a few extra pounds?
Strange priorities.

LisbethSalandersLaptop · 14/10/2015 12:31

wow whoopee doohs she is working 12 hours but says it is 16. Big. fucking. deal.
It is because of people like you OP that village life has such a bad name.
Do you sit in your lounge checking who is going by and twitching the curtain?
Life. Get one.

LineyReborn · 14/10/2015 12:31

The employer will have to account for the payment in their accounts, and the employee has to declare it to DWP / HMRC as appropriate within set periods of time.

overthemill · 14/10/2015 12:35

Do you have iron clad evidence that she is 'cheating' or do you 'think' she is? Unless you have documented evidence, don't do it. You don't know exactly what anybody else's circumstances are. Maybe she is fibbing to you, have you thought of that?

gallicgirl · 14/10/2015 12:35

I'm usually the first to advise reporting benefit fraud but I really wouldn't bother with this one.

So she's not quite working the 16 hours she says she is...hardly raking it in, is she?
As for the situation with the partner, maybe he's agreed that mum can claim the associated benefits in lieu of maintenance or something. Admittedly not right if dad earns a decent amount and can afford to support his child.
Annoying yes, but she'll probably get caught out with compliance at some point.

gamerchick · 14/10/2015 12:39

Has things got so bad that we're turning on each other for actual pennies? The government really has done a right number on us haven't they?

Tootsiepops · 14/10/2015 12:44

I think - if you're going to fiddle things slightly - at least keep it to yourself. Doing wrong and telling folk, or even worse - bragging about it - is just inviting trouble

sparkleup · 14/10/2015 12:53

tootsie I have an acquaintance who does the same thing and my thought is the same as yours. Why brag about it?

Benefit cheating makes me angry because I've watched a few people who genuinely need these benefits (not saying OPs acquaintance doesn't btw, my acquaintance doesn't however) struggle and fight to even get a subsistence. However I've discovered the hard way that people who brag like that are often not honest about a lot of things, so its likely the info is dud. In the case of my acquaintance I'm hoping karma bites them.

TripTrapTripTrapOverTheBridge · 14/10/2015 13:13

Um, is it not possible that the 'cash in hand' (which is actually cash in the bank and invoiced work) makes her hours up to the 16 a week, when added on top of her 12 normal employed hours?

She doesn't have to declare to ' the benefits office'. It's the HMRC that are concerned.

If she is doing extra work, how do you know she isn't registered as self employed and HMRC know that her 16 hours are made up of both employment and self employment? She doesn't need to declare money every time she gets it. She could have estimated her income and will later need to provide details.

Did you consider that?

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