to wonder if the DSS would check people's facebooks in cases where they suspect benefit fraud?

[missnamechange]

i have namechanged for this. my best friend is living with her bloke and has been for months and is claiming benefits as a single mum while he works. i have no intention of grassing her up as to be honest i can see why she is doing it to a certain extent and its just none of my business. but i know people have wildly differing opinions on this but grassing is not for me.

also, to a certain extent i can see why she is doing it, she has not been with him that long and he doesnt earn much so she is worried about them being really really skint when they do declare it. and she has told me that they are going to declare him living there once christmas is out of the way.

however i worry about her because she is pretty blatant about it, everyone knows they live together (although i dont know how many people know she is still on benefits, she may have only told me) but my main worry is her facebook page, she is listed as engaged to him, she makes loads of references on there that would pretty much prove she is living with him, and there are loads of pictures of them all together etc. if she got investigated her facebook page would pretty much hang her :( ...i feel like i ought to say something to her but i darent in case she does get busted and suspects me!

how the gooness would I know what sky tells them - probable they are looking for male dominated chanels, but I doubt they would use that alone and they would build up a whole protfolio of evidence to catch soemone not just one or two peices of evidence unless one peice was completly damning

sky is often subscribed to when a man moves into household. Often it is on his name. It helps build up a picture of finances.

If DWP are looking that far into someones affairs they will Already have strong evidence anyway.

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/10/govt-takes-advantage-of-facebook-narcissism-to-check-on-users.ars

Not a UK article, or relating to benefits... but it does show that government types do indeed like to stick their noses into people's online lives.

You said "she has nnot been with him that long"

Yet they are living together and she is claiming to be engaged.

Which one is it?

can people not be engaged and/or living together after a short while? OP doesnt specify time length, just that its not "that long" i lived with dp more or less straight the way, theres no rules

they are engaged and have been together about 6 months-ish i think. so engaged or not, its still a relatively a short time to be with someone.

No but the the OP said "I can see why she is doing it as she hasnt been with him that long", to me, that implied that she hadnt been with him that long, therefore didnt know whether it was going to be a serious relationship or whatever.

IMO, as this is AIBU, if you are living with someone, and are engaged to be married, thus intending to spend the rest of your lives together, the its serious enough to inform the relevant authorities.

She is lying, cheating and stealing.

I'm sorry if you think that is harsh but its the truth, and if she is doing it now, then bar a lottery win, she is going to continue doing it for as long as possible. She isnt going to give up her "free money".

Who the hell are you to judge someone? You have no political background or knowledge of how government money is spent. This lady just wanted advice and not your opinion. I can't judge on what is fraud or isn't in DSS matters but what I can say for a face is your a nasty judgmental person

Crikey don't hold back handbagging someone about events from 6 years ago

ZOMBIE ALERT

Theoretical like....

I would guess if the DWP didn't check SM they would be neglecting their job?

Surely a soft Internet search would be the most economical way to sort malicious calls.

Anyway do you police the whole of the law or just benefits OP?

What is with all the resurrections of zombie threads today

" just this morning i saw a mum from school in her flash brand new 4x4 with her bloke, nice 4 bed detached house privatly rented, does she pay rent? does she pay council tax? does she fuck!!! yep i reported her! "

omfg huffypuffymummy get a fucking life

Oops

i would report anyone i suspected of doing it too. if they aren't doing anything wrong they have nothing to worry about do they?
That isn't the case though that they'd have "nothing to fear". As far as I know the claimants money will immediately be suspended whether they're guilty or not. I could NEVER do that to someone. The hardships and repercussions can be horrendous. I couldn't have that on my conscience.

There's nothing 'decent' about defrauding the taxpayer.

I know it is a zombie thread but they definitely check facebook to use in conjunction with other evidence. What many people don't realize is that with your email address alone (and it is required to give this in DWP applications) the DWP fraud team can pull up so much stuff. Your facebook, flights you have booked, subscriptions, bank accounts etc. They then build a portfolio of evidence.

They can watch the property to see who is going in/out and what cars are parked there on a regular basis. Of course they check DVLA records to see what cars are in whose name. They can also ask neighbours if X is living there, but they are not allowed to reveal it is a fraud investigation.

Just google DWP benefit fraud & facebook loads and loads of people have been caught this way , often single mothers who's fawbook account have them as engaged / married

I know for a fact that Facebook pages are checked by DSS investigators. I work in conveyancing and I had an investigator in work asking me questions about a client's sale. The person had recently got married and was claiming housing benefit. No fraud had been committed in this case but they knew exactly where to go to check. Even if your own page is set to private, what about all your friends' pages - you can't control everyone in your friends list. i would warn her now before she gets caught because she will - even if it's just someone dropping her in it.