Ive Just shopped someone for benefit fraud, do I deserve to burn in hell.

[Gulitladen]

I feel quite bad.

This person is an acquaintance, She was a single parent for a few months, then she met someone who pretty much moved in, he was paying her bills for her and moved in properly earlier this year.

She has always worked full time with a salary of around 20k.

She seems to have an awful lot of money, and, as a single parent myself, I couldnt quite work it out. However, I have seen her tax credits renewal form as she didnt understand something and asked me to have a look for her, and shes claiming to be a lone parent, working 16.3 hours a week, earning 12k a year less than she actually is.

She is also claiming housing benefit as a single parent.

So, I have completed the DWP form and sent it off. I couldnt help it, it makes me see red.

But I now feel terrible.

If she is working full time and earning 20k (not taking into account the boyfriend's income) she is a little way off from starving.

And if she is committing fraud, she should have thought about what might happen if she got found out.

OP, you finally have it after more than 500 posts.

You would have been a fine person if you had let it be. hallelujah.
Bit too late now, I hope for your sake she hasn't frauded much because it carries a jail sentence.
My sister went to prison for less than this and her controlling x made her sign the bloody forms.
Luckily her xdh was not quite x at the time, and could take care of their 2 dc.
If she goes to prison and her kids taken into care, you are the scum of the earth and have to live with this because of your entitled attitude to handbags.
Pleasant dreams OP

My sister reported a friend of hers for benefit fraud. She had to pay back over £11k.

Instead of arguing amongst ourselves, maybe we could put pressure on the government to stop sanctioning people before they've been investigated.

As so many people have said, having money suddenly and wrongly withheld can have devastating consequences. This is unacceptable. Instead of arguing the toss over whether it's ok to report someone who may or may not be defrauding... Maybe we could make the system fair so that people's lives are not ruined by wrong or malicious reports.

Of course you did the right thing. Benefits are there to help those who need it most - not those who sign up to get extra money to fund a leisurely lifestyle of handbags, nights out and holidays.
If people abuse that system, the ones who need it will end up suffering too. Don't feel guilty - if she hasn't been cheating the benefit system there will be no action against her. If she has, then she has no-one to blame but herself.

OR - it will be her fault for committing the fraud?

Which, she was still claiming she worked 16 hours a week when she works 38, last year. Nothing to do with an abusive partner then. You dont even know that he is abusive.

She is not my friend.

Please read the thread.

i bet she is glad about that, imagine having a friend who is a grass

How can anyone say you are a better person if you do not report a crime if you have reason to believe it is happening?

Where is the line dawn?

If the friend goes to prison (she won't, too small an amount) then she got there because she committed a crime. That is not the fault of the .OP

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Instead of reporting a single case of possible fraud - why not use that time to write a letter to the editor, or to your MP, complaining about how claimants lose their benefits BEFORE it's investigated?

It would be much easier to shop someone if you knew they would ONLY lose their benefits IF they were commiting fraud.

Just an idea.

I don't quite get the hate towards the OP. Not necessarily saying I agree with reporting someone. I know people committing benefit fraud and tax evasion but have never quite had the balls or quite honestly cared enough to report. I kind of think it'll all come out in the wash.

Well done OP.
If you are sure of the facts then l admire what you have done.

if she hasn't been cheating the benefit system there will be no action against her

Have you read the thread?

Sorry havnt read through but she has done the right thing.

It will b investigated and if her acquaintance has done wrong she will be found out, if not no further action.

Reporting someone has to be right, I fail to understand how it can be anythingelse

But it doesn't matter how many hours she tells them she worked. They can see how much she earned. She cannot lie to them. Plus, as I pointed out earlier, she'll have to show her wage slips, bank statements and TC award notice to the council to get her HB. You don't think they might have spotted the fact that her wage slips and bank statements show higher than the TC award?

OP

You did the right thing. She is defrauding the taxpayer. She deserves to be punished.

A few thousand when you are living on the breadline is a lot of money, sure it might not be to you, but try and remember that not everyone is comfortably well off.

Money that isn't going to transferred from her bank account into yours.

What actually was your OP asking us?

I think the argument here, regardless of claiming or not claiming, we've had that argument now, it's been put to bed hopefully!

I think the issue some are having is, whilst the claimant is investigated for fraud her payments may be stopped, till a verdict is reached.

This could ultimately leave the claimant in financial hardship, and a not guilty verdict could be returned and the victim will have suffered for no reason.

there will be no action against her

Aside from the months left without benefits whilst they investigate, you mean.

I agree.

I think that when a person is investigated they should still be in receipt of all benefits. If found guilty they will have to pay them back anyway. If not they are not left is a dire financial position.
Plus it may speed up the authorities when investigating potential fraud as I do believe they can take a ridiculous length of time.

Well done OP.

I know a couple if people interviewed under caution this past year and neither have had their benefits stopped whilst being investigated.

Will I lose my benefit or tax credits?

You may lose your benefit or tax credits if:you are convicted of an offence,oryou agree to pay a benefit penalty as alternative to prosecution,oryou accept a formal caution instead of being prosecuted.This is known as a benefit sanction. Your sanctionable benefit is either not paid or paid at a reduced rate during the sanction period. The sanction period is four weeks for the first offence but may be increased to13 or26 weeks for repeated offences or to three years in cases of serious fraud.

More info investigations . asp here

If I was committing benefit fraud then that's the gamble I take and it's possible someone might inform them. I think most people capable of fiddling their benefits have the sense to realise this.

With the greatest respect sillystring with "friends" like your sister who needs enemies.

Link didn't work

www.turn2us.org.uk/information__resources/benefits/challenging_benefits_decisions/fraud_investigations.aspx

Good god, I'd never report someone. That's the quickest way to fuck up someone's life. Most people (including me) on benefits are constantly terrified they will fill a form in wrong or somehow mess things up, and benefits regularly get stopped for no apparent reason - I had five weeks with no housing benefit recently because if a computer glitch that apparently happens every year to people who change things on the date I happened to get a new job. First I knew was when I didn't have enough to pay the rent. We mismatched our earnings or something once (still not entirely sure what happened, I suspect XH forgot to take in details of his new job) and they told us three years later that they wanted £10,000 back (all the housing benefit and backdated council tax for three years). Luckily I got it sorted out but it was bloody terrifying.

Nobody on benefits trusts them, and ime housing benefit is the worst one for random fuck ups.

Someone who I have had serious disagreements and so on with recently got her benefits stopped while they investigated what sounds (from the small bits of info on the grapevine) like a genuine mistake, because someone reported her. I had a few days of stress and paranoia worrying that somebody would think it was me, but even though she has accused me if all sorts she made a point of public ally saying she didn't think it was me it DP, which I massively respect. I couldn't stand people thinking I'd stoop that low.

The most I'd do if I found out a friend was frauding would be to have a serious word with them - frauds and mistakes always get found out in the end and it is hell just to be investigated. I always recommend being entirely truthful, it's less stress over all.

It will be the poor innocent children who will suffer when they sanction this womens money while they investigate. How can anyone sleep with that on their concionce, and as harsh as this is to say but it willl be your fault when they are having to go without.
Apolgies for the nastiness but I cannot abide bitter snitches. Can I ask. Do you have the same hatered to tax evaders