To think it should be a criminal offence to intentionally maliciously report benefit fraud when no fraud is happening

[IneedAsockamnesty]

I'm obviously not talking about genuinely fraudulent claims just the ones where none exists and are done to cause honest people problems.

Apparently over 90% (trying to remember where i got that info from)of calls to the fraud hotline are not genuine something I can well believe given that when I worked for the dwp the vast majority of the reports we got were quite obviously malicious that resulted in findings of no fraud and many other area depts reported the same thing.

The other steps we take to combat fraud such as data matching are really very effective, investigating these claims costs money both for the dwp/hmrc and for the claimant and can be very upsetting.

Obviously reports should still be semi anonymously made just only anon with regards to the claimant getting the info.

Personally I couldn't do that to someone even if I had fallen out with them but lots of people do.

If getting people to report 'suspected' benefit fraud is as massively inefficient as Sock says (and I reckon it that is the case) then logically the DWP shouldn't spend time and money encouraging people to do it with poster campaigns etc. But they do. 96 or even 90% of these suspicions being bollocks would, I suspect, mean that the money spent investigating them, and encouraging reporting, would outstrip the money saved on the few instances that it turned out someone was committing benefit fraud (or just made a mistake). What the posters encouraging reporting does achieve, in my view, is increase the perception in the public that benefit fraud is a massive, and massively expensive, problem that we, the poor put upon tax-payer should be angry and concerned about, and divert attention away from bigger issues. More divide and conquer.

And a huge amount of the investigation is now done by tax credits without even leaving their desk in Belfast.

First letter asks for a years worth of bank statements utility bills and all sorts of letters gives you a short time to comply (often not enough time to obtain everything) the stuff you have to get could cost you around £100 and they stop tax credits then ask questions at that point.

i agree OP but how would it be proven?

i can well believe most of the calls are malicious though :( have been maliciously reported myself in the past and it was a waste of everyones time and money as i had done nothing wrong

And that's where the hard bit comes in and I haven't quite worked out that bit yet.

Starting with the ones who like to taunt the person they have reported may be a good start

Do the powers that be at the top/behind DWP want fewer reports or malicious reporters punished? Do they give a shit?

tina

yes i know two people who have claimed single parent benefits while their dp was living with them

i absolutely don't condone it of course but in both cases it was because their "d" p's were abusive, financially and mentally and in one case physically as well, plus did not contribute financially. cocklodging bastards. and so the single parents did not dare inform the dss. they certainly weren't raking it in living the high life. and you can see why they wanted to protect themselves and keep an income, rightly or wrongly

It would make sense that they want more accuratereports even if they are malicious in nature as long as they recover money (who wouldn't) but obviously I don't know.

I'm on ML at the moment so haven't spoken to anyone in that position or seen any memos.

It would achieve quite a bit if the volume of malice based false reports were lowered as it would save money and possibly increase detection that could have an impact on fraud figures that would benefit the public purse.

From a purely cynical perspective given that most people think the % levels of fraud are huge when in reality they are tiny and it's serving a purpose to perpetuate this then it would be a win win.

bebbeau

A few years ago I had a very interesting case a random compliance check for a couple that resulted in the woman being switched to a lone parent claim.even though she was under the same roof as the other party.

Mega bad DV situation to on lookers she was in a relationship but to anybody who knew what was going on she was being effectively held hostage and had been for months.

We made sure her lone parent claim was air tight and legal then had an advisor give evidence to support her.

Obviously those details are brief to ensure they are anon

Slightly different but somebody maliciously reported a close family member of mine to the Taxman for not declaring all their income. They went through literally everything, it was really upsetting for the person involved but when all was said and done, it turned out that they were actually due a tax rebate ! Karma!

Yes MrsDeVere it all sounds very different these days and I'm very glad I left that job, and the public sector, behind some years ago.

YANBU some of the mouth frothing that benefits discussions cause really surprises me.
I hate that we are led by the nose with propaganda and scare mongering.
I wonder if making people accountable, maybe even financially too, would see a drop in the reports.
Having the chance to defend yourself after they stop benefits is rewarding anyone with malicious intent.

OhtheDrama,

Good result. But I can't even get them to investigate my ex even after I handed them his real accounts and surveillance footage proving he's fleecing the tax man!

My family were reported maliciously, full investigation launched, my Dad spent three months on the verge of suicide, knowing that people were 'watching us' (we quite often had cars pull up across the road and sit there for a good hour, so we'd spend most days with the curtains drawn) made his MH issues worsen massively, the strain it put on my entire family was awful, we were treated like shit by everyone in our community, my parents lost so many friends from it, many of whom still refuse to believe the truth even though we were found not guilty of any wrongdoing two years ago!

We know who reported us and why. The joke's on him now, as he's bankrupt, his business and home have been reposessed and by all accounts he's totally miserable with his life - a taste of his own medicine - but there'll never be justice for what he put our family through, all because of a long-running feud with my mum over her involvement in community events (he wanted to be the only one seen to be doing any good in the community).

So YANBU, it should DEFINITELY be a criminal offence to report maliciously.

Awful story Moomin. Does the Revenue not understand that many reports are made maliciously?
Has your family every considered taking revenge in some way, or are you too nice to do that?