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Original poster

This IS benefit fraud isn’t it and we COULD be in trouble if we help?

48 replies

NotebookNearlyFull · 05/05/2021 11:33

NC for this

Family member wants to register as living at our address so that his girlfriend doesn’t lose her benefits but stay with her most of the time

I really don’t want to do it, I’m sure it can’t be allowed or everyone would do it. I also think we could find ourselves in trouble if we say he’s living here when he basically isn’t

Other family members have said I’m mean, it’ll be him and his GF if anyone who gets in trouble, we’d be doing nothing wrong, it’s no skin off our noses and we should do it. No one else has a spare room (all have youngish children) so that’s their excuse for saying we’re the only ones who can say he lives here

OP posts:

MusicMenu · 05/05/2021 12:57

Who are your family that "everyone" thinks this is OK?

I can imagine someone floating the idea, in a kind of "would this work?" way, but I can't imagine anyone telling them it's a good plan or putting pressure on a family member to participate.

unfortunateevents · 05/05/2021 12:57

"Other family members have said I’m mean" - well then, they'll have no problem letting him pretend he's staying at their house will they?! Also, do you actually want someone living at your home - even on a very part-time basis?! What happens if they have a huge bust-up and suddenly you acquire a new family member?

MusicMenu · 05/05/2021 13:01

It probably does matter who the family member is. Your 18yo step son, who does actually need a base outside girlfriend's house....

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Benefits

TableFlowerss · 05/05/2021 13:08

Don’t be a facilitator to fraud OP! He’s quite happy to shove you under the bus by asking you to blatantly lying for him - yet if you don’t agree, you’re the unreasonable one?..... don’t think so

osbertthesyrianhamster · 05/05/2021 13:24

@unfortunateevents

Yep!

Original poster

NotebookNearlyFull · 05/05/2021 13:25

He’s happy to pay when he’s here but that’s not the point, we don’t need the money (not bragging just stating a fact) and unfortunateevents has a point - no we bloody don’t want a lodger!

This isn’t our son, step or otherwise. He’s got adult children of his own. If they had their own place he’d probably be asking them instead of us

OP posts:

Original poster

NotebookNearlyFull · 05/05/2021 13:26

Posted before I intended to there

I’m definitely going to say no. As I said earlier I’ve got no problem doing that, or with putting any other family members straight who think it “wouldn’t hurt”

OP posts:

osbertthesyrianhamster · 05/05/2021 13:27

@MusicMenu

It probably does matter who the family member is. Your 18yo step son, who does actually need a base outside girlfriend's house....

So his girlfriend can claim she's single.

osbertthesyrianhamster · 05/05/2021 13:28

@NotebookNearlyFull

Posted before I intended to there

I’m definitely going to say no. As I said earlier I’ve got no problem doing that, or with putting any other family members straight who think it “wouldn’t hurt”

And you're quite right, you can tell them if that's so then they can say he's living with them.

MusicMenu · 05/05/2021 13:30

So his girlfriend can claim she's single. No because it does sound like he genuinely needs/wants a base elsewhere. I think there's a big difference between a teenager spending lots of time at his girlfriend's and actually moving in, but OP has clarified that now.

Chatanooga1 · 05/05/2021 13:37

The answer is NO and if anyone thinks you are mean then they can offer you their address to him.

If anyone dared to ask me this they would be told in no uncertain terms where to go.

osbertthesyrianhamster · 05/05/2021 13:39

@MusicMenu

It makes no difference to the law if the participants are teenagers if one of them is lying to claim she is single to get more benefits

HotPenguin · 05/05/2021 13:43

Aside from the fraud issue, why on earth would you want this man living in your house on an occassional basis? He's got a bloody cheek!

AnneElliott · 05/05/2021 13:54

I agree with everyone else that it's not on. And while I do t think you'd get convicted of benefit fraud for doing this (it's the GF that would get prosecuted), I could lose my job for doing this.

Family can be a pain - mil wanted me to sign off a passport for someone I hadn't known for the required 2 years. Couldn't see why I was a problem. I bloody well work for the Government and used to work at the passport office itself. So no chance I'd get away with it if caught. Stand firm.

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 05/05/2021 14:07

If family members think you’re so mean.
Why don’t they let them use their address. They make you laugh these people.
“ Too much to say but nothing to say” as my nan would say.
Benefit Fraud is one thing. People do what they have to in order to survive. However dragging other people into it is very different.

2bazookas · 05/05/2021 14:29

Its fraud.

You'd be aiding and abetting a cocklodger conman in the theft of my taxes, and if I was your neighbour I'd name and shame both of you to the benefits agency.

Divineswirls · 05/05/2021 14:31

You will get in trouble just as much as her.

No way would I allow that

Divineswirls · 05/05/2021 14:31

@Awwlookatmybabyspider

If family members think you’re so mean. Why don’t they let them use their address. They make you laugh these people. “ Too much to say but nothing to say” as my nan would say. Benefit Fraud is one thing. People do what they have to in order to survive. However dragging other people into it is very different.

Yes this

Lemoine · 05/05/2021 14:33

My friend bought a house and later discovered a previous tenant was claiming benefits as if he still lived there. There was a whole investigation. They proved that he was having his post redirected by the post office and that’s why my friend didn’t know, because she wasn’t receiving the benefit letters in his name. If they had proved she was an accessory to the crime then she would also have been in trouble.

LIZS · 05/05/2021 14:34

Why would you choose to be complicit in someone else's fraud.

DespairingHomeowner · 05/05/2021 14:54

@2bazookas

Its fraud.

You'd be aiding and abetting a cocklodger conman in the theft of my taxes, and if I was your neighbour I'd name and shame both of you to the benefits agency.

^ This. How do you know their neighbours won't

Good that you are saying no, & bloody cheek of them to ask.

MummytoCSJH · 05/05/2021 17:01

@osbertthesyrianhamster if they actually weren't living together (and are not married) then they would be classed as single in the eyes of benefits/the gov/the law whether in a relationship or not. I think this is the PPs point - if it was OPs teen or young adult son (which it's not anyway, but if it was) and he actually moved back to the spare room at his parents, for example for 4 of 7 nights a week, she would be perfectly entitled to claim as a single person and this is not lying or fraud. It is usually assessed on a case by case basis if DWP investigate the issue though.

ghostmouse · 05/05/2021 18:10

Same situation here too.

Was told a firm no.

We receive universal credit as well and the fall out would be big if they were to find out

Not worth the risk.

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