A friend has been caught as a benefit cheat....

[bitzy12]

Or so she thinks.

She's a single parent and works 2 jobs. One is 16 hours and the other is at a restaurant.

Now I always thought that she claimed to hmrc about the restaurant job but turns out she hasn't. She works 4 days or nights a week and gets £80 every shifts cash in hand :-/

Her 16 hour a week job hmrc know about and she claims all the before she can as a single parent - child tax credit, working tax credit, housing benefit etc

She's received a text (she won't tell me who from but I'm guessing it's her ex) that he has contacted hmrc and told them about her cash in hand job.

She is in a state. Anyone know what she can expect to happen? She's been doing this over 3 years.

She always assumed she would get away with it. I'm really disappointed in her as I hate this kind of stuff. She has a daughter aged 5.

She says she can't be 100% that it's just a threat and whoever it is has just done it to scare her.

I've told her to leave the restaurant job now but she says she can't. She can't afford to which quite frankly is bollocks. She could, she would just have to cut back on her luxuries. Her dd is always in expensive clothes. They both are. She constantly buys her toys, takes her away for weekends etc.

She says it's because her dds dad doesn't pay maintenance but I know he does (i still know him aswell)

She's been well and truly stupid. If it does come to anything, does anyone know what she can expect? Will all her benefits be dropped until she pays it back? It will be thousands she owes.....

@Lweji it's another ex.

It'll be dealt with won't it? & not by you. You shouldn't be advising her to leave her job that's not your remit. She'll need to pay back what she owes.

If this situation makes you judge her then don't be her friend. Distance yourself. Unless of course you want to stay close so as to get all the gory details.

My ex's friends know he pays maintenance too. He doesn't, but they all "know" he does

ExH paid maintenance for DCs right through until they reached 18. Apparently. As that what he tells people. Reality:- never paid a penny.

In real life I don't know my friends' financial business and they don't know mine. It's not even a conversation beyond maybe one of us saying I'm skint today, or moaning as it's a week from payday and we're scrimping. MN is a real eye-opener in terms of how many women seem to discuss the ins and outs of their finances with friends as a matter of routine.

Yes, it was a cross post. :)

You contradicted yourself, in your opening post you said he doesnt pay maintenance, then later said she would rather have money on top of her maintenanance than a present

@lovemylover NO! I said 'she said he doesn't pay maintenance' and I know that is incorrect. Read what it says......

At the end of the day, I think she thinks of me as a mother figure. She's early twenties and I'm late thirties. She has never mentioned her mother to me. No one else talks to her in the playground so I made the effort too. (Basically because of the way she dresses and the fact that she doesn't own a bmw like the majority of parents at or school). I think she does appreciate our friendship which is great.Like I say, we don't go or socially, tbh what we would do socially in our own time would differ A LOT.

We do get on well however she has a very very young attitude towards life. This is obvious in her fb posts. She hasn't grown up yet if I'm honest which is why she's got herself into this mess. She's a lovely girl but has a hell of a lot of maturing to do.

I've never minded offering her advice in the past, I've never minded watching her dd for her. That's all fine. Late last night she bombarded me with messages about this. I was and still am disappointed in her and told her so. I wanted to give her some genuine advice (which is why I posted here) but I did say she just needed to be honest and deal with it. Yes I realise that telling her to leave her job wasn't the best but I sort of thought it as a way of her admitting she had done wrong and she had stopped it. That was my thinking without even realising her benefits would be stopped. Now I can see what wouldn't be best so I thank the poster who suggested it for that.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the dds father and wether he pays maintenance or not anyway. The friend was simply saying she works 2 jobs because he doesn't pay maintenance which I believe to be incorrect.

well there isn't much point in dissecting her life and judging someone you initially described as a friend. We can't say anything more than if she has been caught yes she will have benefits cut or reduced until its paid back.

She needs to see a solicitor, she could face jail.

Do the crime, do the time (or, metaphorical time)

Its very unlikely she will face prison. She'll be invited to an interview under caution by Benefits section - it won't be in a police station. It could also be that she will have to pay the money back. She may still be entitled to some Benefit however little so the repayment will come from that. They could do all that in writing and she won't even need to attend interview, they'll write start the deductions and she'll have right of appeal. Or, she may have to pay it al back from her wages. Different scenarios. No-one here knows. We can speculate, thats all.

You don't see her as a friend - yet later you've said you're her mother figure. How would it even get to that re someone you don't see as a friend...? Privy to all her life and financial info and laying it out here for judgment. Thats a funny sort of non-friendship.

Sounds like you dislike her so keep out of it.

She's not a friend as in we don't meet up outside of school. The same would go if it was a work friend you didn't see outside of work. She is a friend who I see on a daily basis and text from time to time but we would never socialise as we are very different.

I like her and have been there for her previously (when she's been crying in the school playground about various things) but I am disappointed in her actions.

That's all there is to say.

All the helpful info I've been given, I will pass on to her where necessary. However I am not going to get fully involved in this as I don't agree with what she has been doing. I agree with do the crime, do the time.

She was simply asking me on what was going to happen to her. I had no idea hence coming on here for advice.

she must know you won't be able to tell her what can/might happen, if shes clutching at straws its her own bloody fault

I’d be contacting hmrc in advance myself and heading it off. I imagine they will do an assessment and hit her for overpaid tax credits/underpaid tax and deduct it weekly at a set rate,

It’s more common than you think