to think about shopping friend of friend for undeclared income?

[FatAssPantaloons]

Is this really snide of me?

Friend of friend has several cash in hand cleaning jobs. Her three DCs are at school so she takes on as much work as she can while they're there. No idea how much she makes in a week but know she charges clients 10 pounds an hour. She works very hard - is one of these people who never seems to pause, is always buzzing wth nervous energy, working or looking for work.

Recently found out that she also claims tax credits as though she were a SAHM. All of her cleaning work is under the table - no tax paid but also claiming benefits as though she wasn't working.

Her husband has a full time low paid job, and they rent a small house in a wealthy area, in a rural place so they each need to run a car, so I can totally see why they need every penny they can get. But, she's defrauding, isn't she?

It's none of my business, right? Or is it?

Perhaps a 35 hour week would involve more take home pay if the state didn't take as much from them in tax.

"Lets remember the same person being branded a benefit cheat in this country may be an entrepreneur in another." Yes, I can think of a few. Let's all be grateful we don't live in one of them.

"But obviously people who are able to work hard and long hours aren't thieves"
Obviously. But people who take money from the state by deception are thieves. The state is not an anonymous entity, it's you and me. Those BBC executives with massive payoffs? It wasn't the BBC who lost. Those severance packages were taken from your pocket and mine. Sometimes it's taken from shareholders of a company, or council taxpayers, in the same way. It might have lots of different names, like obtaining by deception, or fraud, or tax evasion, or misuse of public funds. But it's stealing.

I wouldn't. Especially as she is about to declare it anyway.

If she's getting tax credits then the family are declaring a working income,or they wouldn't be entitled to it.

So maybe the cleaning is just pin money. Either way I wouldn't report, and you can't be certain of the facts anyway. In this day and age where I'm beginning to think lots of people are busy looking into their mates & family's financial business I wouldn't tell anybody I receive tax credits anyway.That kind of stuff is private. & what people ' think ' they know can cause untold hassle at times.

A mutual friend said so? Then you don't know.

All based on hearsay and I couldn't give a shit, the massive bulk of the benefits bill is pensions. This is a drop in the ocean if it's happening.

Seriously? Leave her the fuck alone. Do you really think the few quid she might be scamming is even the vapour of a drop in the ocean of what corporations and politicians are robbing from us?
Leave her alone.

tax credits are based on household income/number of children.They are not based on how many parents work.If she is self employed then she might have found plenty opf expenses to stack up against her income.You really haven't a clue about her situation.Beak out!

I think this thread does go to demonstrate one of the problems with the welfare system. It's why it has to be reformed; indeed, this is one of the reasons why it is being reformed. Not because one person is cheating, but because so many people think she's entitled to do it. It's become a cultural norm. Her husband has a job, she has a home, they live ok. Welfare is supposed to be a safety net, not a way to make a bit more money. It is because of people like this that the system is being looked at, even why people with disabilities are being reassessed. I think it's wrong that so many people think it's ok. It must be going on on a massive scale with this level of complacency. And that means the people who really need it are going to suffer more.

To me, it would depend on whether the income was the difference between food and school shoes or flash cars and holidays. If the former no I doubt I'd bother, if it were the latter and I knew she was claiming, yes I would shop her. The benefit system wasnt designed for that.

Personally I wouldn't shop her because I wouldn't want to cause anyone that amount of grief and distress.
Yes it's wrong, but within the climate of MPs fiddling expenses for thousands, banks being bailed out with public money and bankers still receiving bonuses and we're still so far away from the living wage, then I would turn a blind eye to a woman topping up the coffers this way.

Personally I'd rather see a living wage paid so the government stops subsiding the salary bills of larger employers and a trimmed down welfare system.

I have considered shopping a couple of people who I suspect haven't been honest with the tax man/CSA and so pay minuscule amounts of child maintenance. I didn't, but it makes my blood boil whenever I see them.

Just leave her to it

If she were not claiming the tax credits I wouldn't be bothered about the fact that she's earning a bit of cash in hand money and not declaring it. But to be earning cash in hand money and claiming a benefit she's therefore not entitled to is a step too far in my book.

It's rife though - it really is. The level of benefit fraud/abuse is horrendous.

I do refuse to purchase. However if no crime has been committed it's up to the Tories to change the legislation. I believe quite a lot of it was introduced under Labour - including the loophole under which Vodafone will pay no tax on the massive deal they've just agreed with Verizon. At least the Tories are doing something about it, and on a global scale too. If an MP was fiddling her expenses I would report her in a heartbeat.

Just more and more of the same. This is why things are changing. The idea that a benefits cheat might be considered an entrepreneur shows how far we've fallen.

She can't be claiming working tax credits on the basis of her husband working and her being a SAHM as both people need to be working a minimum number of hours each to be eligible.

Child tax credits cover next to nothing so if they're getting those it won't exactly be huge amounts of riches - mine barely cover childcare.

If she's being as brazen as you say and it's true she'll get caught out anyway. You don't seem to be in possession of all the facts, just hearsay, so I would think carefully before you decide to do anything.

No I wouldn't.

You don't know what she is and isn't declaring and it is none of your business.

I would never do this. I honestly couldn't bring myself to care if someone working hard and scraping by was claiming a few extra quid when you've got the likes of Google and Amazon

Not sure it would make that much difference re tax credits anyway. Maybe you should encourage her to declare it for pension purposes & then everything will sort itself out!

I run two cleaning businesses, one with commercial cleaners who are my employees and one with self employed cash in hand cleaners who do private homes. I come across this a lot even in the commercial company where I declare everyone's p45/46 information to HMRC. If I find out they reported. No exceptions. My BIL cannot work due to severe disability and being a single dad to a severely disabled son. He has recently seen his benefits decimated and the government get away with this crap due to the bad press surrounding the cheating scroungers like this. They make me sick. Perhaps you should also consider getting a more honest friend

Ohforfoxsake perhaps if you reported them your blood would stop boiling

I don't know why your friend told you about her friend. She sounds like a shit stirring gossip.