To report fraudulent benefit claimant

[racmun]

So bil and SIL who have a 1 year old daughter have 'broken up'.

As a bit of background bil works but SIL is a SAHM. They were in private rented but it was costing too much so They broke up SIL and niece got housed and 4 days later they are back together and bil has moved in!

Apparently he stays at mil once a week as she is claiming benefits as a single mother (have no idea what difference this makes) and if the state finds out she'll lose her benefits. This is what mil has told us btw, I f

This has made me really furious and I'm inclined to report them for benefit fraud and let the authorities decide if they are doing anything illegal.

Or am I just being a bitch.

Oh more than that is so sad -did she keep the baby?

Mignonette if surveillance had been carried out on your clients you would know about it. If you were representing them in a court case it would be disclosed. What sort of scares me on threads like this is that surveillance is carried out often, cross referencing and data matching is done even more often. People are getting caught more and more often for fraudulent benefit claims. Posters are beating themselves up about whether they should report people when chances are they really don't need to.

And although I can see the tide has changed - it's far more report than ignore these days - I'm still surprised at how many people suggest benefit fraud should be ignored. How many people would overlook colleagues stealing from work?

And Maryno I'm not wrong, at least not according to the DWP's own training.

And any lone parent who was questioned about there 'partner' should tell the absolute truth within the confines of the questions the dwp are legally allowed to ask them.

If the truth is that they are in a normal committed relationship and he is an actual partner then they should be punished, but if the truth is that it is not a committed relationship he maintains a separate address has no commitment to the household and stays there for child access whilst not being treated as a partner or considered as one within the rules they allow then they are doing nothing wrong.

Lots of people have odd arrangements and this may very well lead to having a hard time explaining or proving them but if they are legal then they are legal no matter how hard the time you have demonstrating that.

Since I have moved house I keep receiving bank statements for a man who we think was a some-time boyfriend of the previous tenant. We have had to open some of them to get the association stopped and the account shows JSA going in and an equivalent expensive phone contract going out and that's all. No bills, no food shops, nothing.

How is someone like that living, and where? Probably taking advantage of a poor lone parent and happy to fuck off and leave her children to starve when it's found out.

I don't receive benefits and nor does my ex husband
He is currently staying at my house and is spending time with our children
He is depressed and not working (he is independently wealthy..I say this only to point out that he isn't claiming from anyone at all) but when he is well enough he will move out and live alone again

I am dating, so was he before his illness and we are resolutely not a couple
If we were claiming as a single parent would the benefits agency consider us to be a couple or married again?
Seems madness. Simply sharing an address doesn't mean anything.

Ronald the rules allow for care need dictated house shares. It also allows for all other types of legit house shares where no 'living together as husband and wife or civil partners"exists as well as married couples/civil partners who separate but are unable to leave the home.

Its a pain in the arse to explain it all and make sure they get it but its possible.

CorrineFoxworth, you haven't really been opening someone else's post on purpose have you?

I think that might be a criminal offence.

oh thanks socks

Benefits seem like an utter minefield.
I am always amazed when people claim to know what goes on inside another person's home.

My grandparents (strict catholic) lived utterly separate lives (as he was vile) but remained in the same house for 20 yrs, even used separate entrances
BY today's standards that would mean they were living together as man and wife to all busybodies??

It doesn't seem like you know the facts fully...however, you don't need to. Benefit fraud is theft. Because it's seen as theft, councils investigate before they even contact those who are suspected of it.

So if you're not quite right, nothing will come of your complaint (which I'd always advise to do anonymously).

I don't particularly think your motivation matters in this instance. And I definitely don't agree with the 'I fucking hate a grass' people posting. People committing benefit fraud should know better than to discuss their finances if they don't want to risk that they're going to rub someone up the wrong way.

OP I confess to not having read the whole thread, but I am . I take it you are an upstanding citizen.

And this is your business why? How do you know it's going to work out for them? Maybe they're just trying to work their relationship out, either between them and/or with their dcs, and up against poverty. Do you know how hard it is to come off and go back on benefits?

I know several professional people who can't get on them let alone off them.

Can I get you a halo let alone a grip?

I don't believe in dishonesty or thieving or deceit. But do you know about desperation? No, probably not.

In case you ask, I've not claimed benefits since I came out of school, some 30 years ago and I'm a single, not highly paid, dm of two bigger dc's with a mortgage still.

There are times when I can't blame people for this, which you find so disgusting..

Have a go at the political parties for their fraud first eh?

That's why its always advisable to be totally honest with dwp. Because if you don't knw they are a minefield and its always best to not unintentionally do something wrong.

As to your grandparents its not certain if they would or wouldn't be. A bad relationship is not going to be classed as no relationship because it still is a relationship but a separated couple who actually are separated but still under the same roof would not be.

Obviously I'm using the term relationship as a substitute for "a living together as blah blah blah"

Jolleigh.

Why anon? If I was reporting I would give my name.

Caff2 it might well be a criminal offence but when you live in a house and pay rent and have paid for mail redirection to said address sometimes you open things by mistake because one tends to assume that the letters coming through the letterbox are for you.

And because the previous tenants have left debts which meant that I lost over £100 on the electricity meter for a start, and hordes of sold-on debts, yes I do sometimes open something which means that a bailiff may be visiting my house in the near future and terrifying my children so I can head it off.

Don't want anyone opening your post? Tell your creditors that you have moved or have never lived there.

Op, before you do anything please read JacquelineHydes post. Then reread it 24 hours later.

Yes, but some people are fundamentally honest and do stuff out of desperation. :(

Op i dont think yanu. Although i don't know what i would do, if i did know that fraud was taking place i hope i would report it. It is wrong to claim for money you are not entitled to. It just makes it harder for the genuine people. I cant believe how many people think its right.maybe as people think its a Victimless crime

Sock - not sure if it even matters nowadays to be honest...if I have my facts right (which I'm not saying I am!) councils always conduct their own investigation now then use the evidence from that rather than what they received in the initial complaint. And because of this, the complainant stays anonymous.

I'd say specifically to keep it anonymous as to be honest this is a matter of a possible breaking of the law...it doesn't do anyone any good for it to turn into a family feud too.

So, some criminal offences are ok?

We had dodgy previous tenants. Bailiffs arriving twice were perfectly satisfied when we showed we were not the previous tenants they were looking for. They weren't terrifying. "Are you Mrs X Name?" "No, I'm Ms Caff2". All it took.

Could've proved our identity if necessary. Didn't need to open anyone's pst except my own.

Post, not pst!

Usually it would not be the council who investigate it would be the dwp who then pass on info to the LA if HB is involved or less often it would be the other way round.

Most reports turn out to be malicious (and weirdly made by close family members) so all a report tends to do is generate a data matching prompt. But they do those all the time anyway. What happens next very much depends on the data matching.

They don't go in gung ho with hidden cameras not unless they have very good reason to. And often they have done an interview under caution before they even get to that point.

The sorting out the malicious reports from the genuine ones costs a fortune takes shit loads of time and reduces the ability to investigate the real ones.

It would be highly unusual for a genuine fraud to not be picked up automatically.they really do have very good investigation teams with impressive skills. Sadly they spend much to much time on false or malicious reports.

What did you do with the post, Caff? I've tried sending it back marked address unbeknown but some creditors are relentless especially if sold-on. Well-known gym £500 in arrears refused to accept our phone call and wanted us to send proof at our expense

Address unknown, not unbeknown - that was the medieval version of "Return to Sender"

I have to be very careful because my son is autistic and has to be very well prepared for people knocking at the door so I try to head-off unexpected callers. Everyone in my family knows that it upsets him and won't even drop a card through the door. Bailiffs would scare the hell out of him even if they could be dealt with "easily"

I agree Sock that crimes cost money to investigate. Should we stop investigating all crime then or only the ones that chunks of society find acceptable?

The way I see it, if you suspect a crime, you report it. Whether that be someone possibly comitting benefit fraud or seeing someone trying to access your neighbour's house (this could easily have an entirely innocent explanation too!)

OP if you bring the parents 'down' you'll not just wreck their lives, you'll wreck their dcs' lives too.

I hope if you do 'grass' you'll be honest and let them and your extended family know that you did.

This country is in such a sad state it's unbelievable. :(

Even those who deserve the welfare state can't really get it without bending rules.

Look inside councillors, MPs, House of Parliament etc

Find the real thieves that have left people destitute.

As to the question 'why would anyone fake a split to get a house?', I've witnessed one example.

Friend of mine, dp and kids in large bought house that they can't afford (after friend taking out IVA to get rid of previous debts, dp buying house with undisclosed savings for deposit, friend reverting to maiden name for mortgage, then running up huge debts again under new id).. Friend then goes to LA, tells them dp has been EA and they are separating and she has to sleep on her mother's sofa with the youngest dc, says the older dc is remaining with dp until friend gets her own home, and that she will be staying at exdps home 2-3nights/week to see elder dc. Friend is then classed as homeless and gets bumped up the waiting list for home. 12mths down the line, friend is offered 3 bed terrace with back and front garden, lovely house, accepts it and dp moves in with her, at the same time. In all this time friend has remained living with dp as normal, when they move into LA property, sell large bought house, recover deposit, 'get rid' of said money then file bankruptcy. Fresh start with undisclosed savings, and in all this time, friend never spent so much as one night at her mother's.

So as for saying 'they'll get caught in the end', I find this hard to believe, as surely if anyone is going to get caught, it's a glaringly obvious situation such as above. Oh and what's worse, friend works for LA.

I didn't 'grass' friend in, but she's not really a friend any more, as it just didn't sit right with me. At least she didn't claim to be living as a single patent in the fraudulently gained house.