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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Moral dilemma: to report a blatant benefit thief?

61 replies

PopGoesTheWeasle · 28/09/2010 08:23

I don't like to think of myself as one to dob on others, but our neighbour is commiting such blatant benefit fraud it makes me sick. DH works bloody hard for a pitance and I'll be going back to work when DD is really young so we can keep paying the bills. Meanwhile, our lazy arsed neighbour is milking it, saying he's too ill to work but making a tidy living selling things he's made in his garage and wheeling and dealing on ebay. He's got 3 cars (one worth £10,000) when he barely even needs 1. Grrrr... Angry

OP posts:
Poogles · 28/09/2010 09:53

OP said he is selling things he is making. To me that sounds like work and therefore it should be declared!

If OP geuinely thinks that their neighbour is making things and selling them on eBay and KNOWS they are claiming benefits for not being able to work, then it is OP's civic duty to report them.

oliviacrumble · 28/09/2010 09:53

I find it a bit 'off' that you'd want to report someone who you say you've spent lots of time with, and who's 'done you loads of favours'.

Surely living near him will be become incredibly awkward for you - you're hardly planning to fake an ongoing friendship with him, are you?

GypsyMoth · 28/09/2010 09:59

op....your op was one more of resentment that you will have to return to work,rather than one of a benefit concern!!

ebay is fine....as is pottering with cars in his garage!! do you expect the benefits office to come marching in to see what he's doing? do you know how much money it costs to investigate fraud? proper fraud that is.....you need to be sure,very sure,otherwise its a waste of money!!!

it doesnt sound like you know alot here..

ShirleyKnot · 28/09/2010 10:03

One

Two

Three

All in this month.

dandydorset · 28/09/2010 10:15

ebay you can sell your personal items,anything you buy to sell and profit from you are classed as a buisness end of

im on benefit and do know 1 or 2 people committing fraud and dislike it BUT cant inform as just cant do it,and there is a huge difference in pin money and earning fulltime wage,then maybe i would

also plenty of self employed do more or less the same with expenses and cash in hand,dont like that either

LadyBiscuit · 28/09/2010 10:16

Poogles - you don't know that he isn't declaring it. And neither does the OP.

MaMoTTaT · 28/09/2010 10:22

if he's on ESA he can do "permitted work" up and earn up to £93 a week

and if he's told the Job Centre (which you don't know if he has or not) and had their agreement he can do some self employed work. (and still keep his benefits)

AccioPinotGrigio · 28/09/2010 10:36

You mention in your post of 08:58 that "they" have done you lots of favours. Presumably then he has a partner. Does this partner work and thus fund the running of three cars?

Perhaps they have savings or an inheritance of which you know nothing.

Without all the facts to hand I would not be snitching.

MaMoTTaT · 28/09/2010 10:39

perhaps the car isn't even worth £10k Grin

magso · 28/09/2010 10:42

I think you need to be careful that you are sure your neighbour is getting sickness benefit not another allowance such as disabled living allowance! DLA is awarded to people with permanent/ long term disability and is not income dependent. Therefor proceed carefully.

MaMoTTaT · 28/09/2010 10:44

oh and if they're getting housing benefit and council tax benefit - well you can get those if you're working as well. (thank god or otherwise I'd be stuck on the benefits for good - or live in cardboard box Grin)

NordicPrincess · 28/09/2010 12:07

whats the difference between fiddleing and fraud?

Dont report this person, you have no actual proof of anything. Do you see his bank statements? No. Do you KNOW how much he paid for his car? No. You know pretty much nothing so leave him alone

ccpccp · 30/09/2010 09:17

overthemill - 'if he is selling stuff he makes as a hobby (like i might do with my tapestry kits which i love and have thought about selling off once made up to finance the next one) he is not 'working''

I dont think thats correct. If you are regularly making and selling items on ebay, you are operating a business and thus working. It doesnt matter if its a hobby.

I can give you a link to the self assessment form for this years tax? You will need to fill one out to declare all your untaxed income Wink

cupcakesandbunting · 30/09/2010 09:36

Hmmmm. You don't really know how he got the money for the cars though. Could have been money from family or similar? It sounds like a lot of speculation, really. OK he has an expensive set of wheels and flogs stuff on eBay. I'm willing to bet that selling on eBay isn't contravening any benefit rules.

"My sister works very little and gets max rate disability but you might see her going for a swim. That doesn't mean she doesn't have a disability though which prevents her from working"

I do think that a disabled person going for a swim is very different from someone blatantly ripping off the system by working on the sly. If I saw a disabled person swimming, I'd think "oh, probably helps their condition" before thinking that they're a scammer.

Anyway, YABU. Just because there doesn't seem to be anything concrete.

emmyloulou · 30/09/2010 10:42

You know with DLA, you can actually work and it's not means tested, it is to help with the extra cost of living with a disability.

So if they get higher motability that could explain the car, but you can work as long as it does not contradict anything on your claim as to what you can and can't do.

So I don't see what you can report him for, he works from home and potters about doing a little job on the side, it's allowed if he is on DLA.

tethersend · 30/09/2010 10:58

Fucking moron number one and two checking in... where's usualsuspect?

Oh, and OP; you neighbour isn't the reason you don't have enough money. But well done for swallowing the government propaganda information that he is.

thesecondcoming · 30/09/2010 11:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

cumfy · 30/09/2010 12:11

Or he could legitimately be running his own business and claiming disability-rate working tax credits (v.little difference from ESA rate).

Who knows.

AlpinePony · 30/09/2010 13:01

Do it. If he's innocent he's nothing to fear from an investigation. :)

Hate that this is taboo when I know full well of mners de-frauding the benefits system and we're all supposed to coo "oooh but it's not what you think and it's so hard ". Pish. Man up.

loveinsuburbia · 30/09/2010 13:47

"If he's innocent he's nothing to fear from an investigation."
Except for having his benefits stopped while the investigation is taking place. That is something that happens regularly.

blueshoes · 30/09/2010 13:54

Wonder what OP's neighbour's disability could be. It is not stopping him from doing some form of work.

katerum · 30/09/2010 14:01

Why not confront him then?

With friends like you!

MistsAndMellow · 30/09/2010 14:06

He is working on his own in his garage.

Autism? Agoraphobia?

Disability (and being in receipt of DLA as opposed to being "signed off") doesn't exclude a person from working.

Rather the opposite I'd have thought. Plenty of disabled people are able to work under certain conditions which is as it should be.

overthemill · 30/09/2010 14:17

ccpccp i can assure you that if i made things to sell on ebay as a business then it would indeed be earned income and therefore declarable as income from self employed earnings. However, if I sell off possessions which I own (Like tapestries I have finished making - tbh the making is the pleasure for me not the finished items, or old knickers of my daughter's) these are simply items which I am at liberty to sell. I do not buy things to sell on ebay therefore selling stuff like these is not earned income - I have checked with my tax office before as I am also self employed.

I could be liable for capital gains tax, if for example any personal item I disposed of was worth more than £6000, and if my 'gain' was in excess of £10,000 then I would have to pay tax on that - quite rightly so.

I am not a tax avoider, nor an evader - I am however a socialist and quite in favour of people paying tax on earned income in order to contribute to society and p[ay towards the cost of what is provided by Central and Local Government.

Glass houses and stones - I wonder if you have ever taken home from work an envelope or a paper clip - or used the office electricity to charge your mobile phone?

newwave · 30/09/2010 15:24

Report him, he wont find out if you dont give your name and number. If he is not on the fiddle then he wont have a problem.

I have no doubt many criminals are nice peolple who help others but they are still criminals.

If he is on the level then no harm done