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.

Why is it cowardly to do it anonymously?

I honestly don't understand that POV.

Why should OP bring herself more hassle than she is already having to deal with because of someone else's crime? She's not the one doing anything wrong. There is absolutely no virtue in 'being open' about it. It would be utterly pointless and achieve nothing.

Much better to just make the report, and let the authorities do the job they are paid to do.

Yes, I do believe all the pot smoking hippies are pretty chilled out. I am also pro legalisation (I don't smoke) I don't think they are miserable anyway. Its hardly crack cocaine!

My point was that I don't really CARE if something is illegal or not. So I wouldn't report out of respect for the law, but out of anger that my husbands taxes were being stolen.

Just saying, no need to get all moral about it. Why wouldn't OP be pissed off they are getting a holiday on her taxes?

Well you've already done it so obviously you only posted to wind people up.. You should have spoken to them first, given them a chance to explain or sort themselves out, or did you wait until they were on holiday to do it on purpose?
GoodTouch your friend has probably wired up the electricity so that his neighbours are paying through the nose for his criminal activity. A ex friend of mine had a cannabis factory going and the neighbours ended up paying thousand of pounds extra on their electricity bill. On the upside, that's how he got caught...

OP hasn't been given any hassle other than tiring out her tongue bitching and gossiping with MIL. Oh and of course all her private surveillance.

And it is cowardly. And they will suss out it was her. OP's underhand behaviour shines out of her original posts and subsequent ones. I'm sure it will be equally obvious to others IRL.

I second Mistress. Well said.

Look, there are plenty of jobs if you like sleuthing... Police, fraud squad, forensic psychologist, lawyer....Invest all your energies in retraining and go after the MPs, suits and big criminals.

Report them if you absolutely sure they are committing fraud. It is theft if they are not entitled to it.

butt out ! it'll bite you on your ass

Why is it cowardly to do it anonymously?

Erm, because cowards are exactly that. They hide behind other people/things.

You say apparently so you don't know for sure.

Butt out.

But there shouldn't be a need for OP to hide behind anything in the first place. She is not the one who created the situation.

That's like saying its cowardly to call the police if you wake up to a burglar in your house. You don't know that they have any intention to harm you, why don't you just be open and talk to them first to find out their intentions by calling the police. After all, their kids might suffer if they get caught committing a crime!

That should have been before calling the police!

I completely understand how Stalinist Russia happened.

The post is quite saddening, since when did theft become so acceptable? What sort of lessons are children being taught?

Regardless of the OPs motivation for reporting it should be reported regardless.

I'd report them - it is anonymous anyway. People who do this are making a mockery of the system which is supposed to be a safety net for tose who really need it, are costing us all money, and giving genuine benfit claimants a bad name.

I agree with you movingonandup

Moving on,that is not actually true. It would be quite normal for her money to be stopped and some stage in the next 8 weeks be called in for a interview under caution.

Someone mentioned the nazi''s the thread is over.

Yanbu op-its amazing the change in attitude to benefit scroungers on mn in the past couple of years-you would once have been hounded off this thread with shouts of goat

Weirdly enough, the last person I work with who got investigated (reported by her ex) had her money stopped for 10 weeks was interviewed ect some weeks after they reinstated her money when they determined she was doing nothing wrong but gave her more because it turned out they had made an error and were underpaying her.

Her ex was furious.

There is a huge difference between reporting someone you either know to be claiming fraudulently or have a reasonable belief they are.

And reporting someone that someone else who may or may not have there own agenda has gossiped about.

One is a legit report the other is not.

Broken That is not the same at all. Wrong analogy. If you had a chance to prevent the crime and solve an issue by asking them if they are committing/about to commit a crime you should do that. Not sneakily report anonymously.

Using a similar example to yours, why bother intervening at all in a preventative or precautionary manner? Let that man in the street pickpocket another then report afterwards. Even if you see him about to do it or with his hands in a pocket. let him do it then report him even if it causes a lot more upset and hassle It is the whole upstream/downstream argument.

There is a chance for the OP to stop any alleged activity by telling them of her intentions. But she appears to be deriving a certain amount of malicious pleasure from anonymous reporting because she actively wants them to suffer the consequences. Even the children. There is secondary malicious gain here. Not high moral ground.

Nobody is condoning fraud. What they are saying is reporting anonymously without giving those involved a chance to either explain or stop their activity is cowardly, malicious, based upon nasty family gossiping and amateur sleuth-pryng on FB and that the OP's driving motives are less noble.