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.

I feel bad, I am not a snitch.

You are now :)

why did you report her to DWP?

she is getting tax credits, not jobseekers?

mummymeister you say "the DWP will carry out their own investigations. they do not take all the facts reported to them as completely true they check for themselves."

That would be nice if it were true. The sad truth is that once you are reported they knock you to the ground and kick you a few times before looking into anything.

Even if you finally get the benefit reinstated and even if they give you it from the date they stopped it, do you think they will pay your bank charges/interest from being overdrawn and so on?. If you lose your home because you didn't pay the rent/mortgage do you think they will buy you another?

The cases where someone is sure that fraud is going on are rare. In most cases it is guesswork, jealousy and spite by small minded people who get off on the pain to others.

People say "but you have to report a crime" but it's noticeable that the crimes they report are only those where someone they know has nicer things than they do.

I just hope the OP is the rare case where an accusation is correct.

I am a snitch now, yes :)

And of course, my only motivation was because of the handbags not because it is illegal.

Noones going to stop anything based on what ive said, what they will do it look into it, and, if its all great, then nothing will happen.

Why did you report her to them? She's not claiming income support / JSA.

Are you going to remain 'acquaintances'?

Tax credits comes under DWP? I googled and the only thing that came up was that. There is nothing on the tax credits site at all.

Again, why DWP?

I'm sure, if she is claiming tax credits then HMRC know how much she is earning.

You don't actually know if she gets housing benefit but clearly she doesn't get JSA or income support.

So whst are the DWP going to do?

If the OP is wrong, she won't loose any of her benefits when investigated, so no problem in reporting it

So basically report everyone, just in case?

Noones going to stop anything based on what ive said, what they will do it look into it, and, if its all great, then nothing will happen.

Clearly not too guilt laden. That's a relief.

You have reported your suspicions (well done); the dwp/hmrc will decide whether to investigate further.

If her family suffer (and that is by no means certain) it would not he because of the op reporting her but because befriend has committed fraud. She should have thought about that before acting illegally.
F

Not something I could do despite what I thought of someone/their circumstances

If she is committing fraud then it's probably only a matter of time before they catch up with her anyway!

you sound quite bitter and jealous of her lifestyle tbh.

It's her child that will probably suffer and go without now.

Sorry x posts.

I always thought DWP and HMRC were completely seperate.

And if you are an employee, I cannot understand how you could lie to HMRC about how much you earn?

I, of course, meant you morally need to be 100% certain of your facts! Not that the HMRC/DWP won't investigate if you don't have evidence!

A very good friend of mine was quite recently 'reported' for alleged Benefit Fraud - she wasn't (and isn't) claiming anything other than the basic she is entitled to but that did not stop the council summoning her into the office, informing her of her 'fraud' and telling her that she was looking at a custodial sentence. Even though she knew that she was not claiming fraudulently, the threat of prison is still a mighty scary one to many people.

In my friend's case she is pretty sure the 'report' came from a malicious SIL - but cannot be sure. Even though there is proven to be no truth at all to the claims of fraud, she has still gone through a hugely stressful time. For nothing, not even an apology. The investigation also took months and months to complete - we are not talking about a quick "yeah, that's fine, everything is in order" here.

No tax credits come under the HMRC along with child benefit and they have access to income records of every single person who is employed or self employed. So they will already be able to tell if there is a difference between what her actual earnings were and what she's stating her earnings are. So really you should keep your nobble out.

mummymeister - I'm afraid the Treasury doesn't work like that. If, by some stroke of genius, benefit fraud was to somehow be eradicated, they don't use those savings to dish out more to genuine claimants. There's a certain amount that the government sets which they believe to be the lowest amount that a claimant should be able to live on, and that figure doesn't increase if there's "excess" in the pot.

I would not.

I am not the state's civil police.

civilians reporting each other. Yuck.

Having been the subject of a malicious complaint to school before now, I'd say you should be 100% cat iron sure of your facts before sticking your nose into other people's business. You have no idea what you might have set in motion and at best you've saved the tax payer done money, at worst you could destroy a family. I hope you've made the right decision I really do.

YANBU - Can't stand benefit cheats and it makes no difference whether some one is claiming Working Tax Credits or JSA, you get quite a bit more if you are claiming as a single parent.

I have reported some-one before. A couple each had a council house (and children) and were claiming various benefits (not working) yet they were staying in the same house almost every night!

Aren't benefits suspended whilst the investigation is carried out?

Those of you saying 'oh well, if she's not done anything wrong there's no harm done' are actually wrong.

They will suspend any money she has coming from them while they investigate. She may get this back paid if she is found to have done nothing wrong if she is lucky but in the meantime will have to subsist on whatever she earns.

DWP/HRMC have bugger all to do with Housing Benefit.

BackOnlyBriefly is right.

My family were reported for benefit fraud out of jealousy. The first we heard about it was when none of the benefits were paid into the account and the LL phoned us up asking where the rent was because the housing benefit hadn't been paid.

My parents were both left suicidal as a result, we had hardly any money, could hardly afford to eat or run the motability car (public transport wasn't an option). We were nearly kicked out of our home and left with absolutely nowhere else to go.

Even when we were found to be completely innocent, did we get an apology? Of course not! They found that due to an oversight, they were actually underpaying us - did we get that backdated? Of course not! In fact, because they'd underpaid us a benefit we were supposed to be getting, they decided that they'd overpaid us another benefit that we wouldn't have gotten if they'd paid us the other one, and wanted us to pay them back. Five years on, my parents are just about coming to the end of the ordeal, but there's still so many people in the town who believe the guy who reported us, because he was eager to shout about it, and they're mainly old rural people stuck in their ways.

What's more, the people who make malicious reports aren't punished. He was allowed to carry on running businesses and managing the accounts for various groups... well, until this year that is, when he was reported and found guilty of fraud karma is great.

This is a long-winded and personal way of saying be sure of your facts before you report, and to those of you saying the DWP are a kindly, caring organisation who will make sure they do all the relevant investigations before any action is taken; bollocks. You've clearly never had dealings with them.

It's not just benefits either, it's the whole government system. No wonder people move and try and drop off the grid, I can genuinely understand why the do it. The argument of If you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to fear just doesn't stand up - you have everything to fear frankly.

I couldn't do it myself, as I don't believe I could know anybody else's financial situation. A lot of people think I'm on benefits because I'm a sp and they see me up at the school but I work. I bet people do look at me and wonder why I have money though. How dare a single mother be eking out more a meagre existence. {sigh}

I had a male companion a while back, but as he had children of his own to support, no way would I have expected him to pay my bills.

It is couples pretending to be single that drive me mad. ie, the father of the children is the 'boyfriend' that lives down the road. Some new randomer, a new boyfriend, there's no reason why he should contribute to the bills.

You have reported somebody who you believe is committing a criminal act. She will be investigated and a decision will be made.
I will report anyone who I believe to be committing a criminal act and I would not feel guilty.

Whether her children lose out is not your responsibility that lies with the parent. If that persons life becomes difficulty again that is not the OP's fault. There is enough info out there detailing the penalty for falsely claiming benefits so it is down to the individual who signed the form to take responsibility for that action.

There are many many single/couples parents who live on benefits who do not claim fraudulently, that needs to be the rule not the exception.