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.

Ok then. If people here are not defrauding taxpayers and honest working people out of benefits that they ARE entitled to because they themselves are on the fiddle, what rationale are you giving for defending a clear benefit fraudster?

There is nothing disablist on this thread IMO. Woowoo was misquoted. She said nothing offensive. Intentionally or otherwise if you read her posts in context. Nothing's been deleted. Go back and have a look.

I've never once defended a clear benefit fraudster; I've just given my experience of being on the receiving end of a false accusation, and expressed my hope that the OP has their facts right.

what rationale?

Ok lets see. THE ABSENCE OF ACTUAL FACTS?

we do not know she is a benefit cheat. Let alone a "clear benefit fraudster"

I could judge by your 1 post that you are a twat. But that would be wrong. As i do not have actual facts

I would never accuse anyone of 'acting like a c*'

Awful language!

And as for saying no one on here is defending the indefensible because they are not benefit cheats themselves, well you would say that wouldn't you! I'm sure not all but some people have a very bent moral compass if they condone stealing from taxpayers (you and me)

Again why defend someone cheating a system designed to help genuine people if you don't have an axe to grind. I am totally confused about that.

Ey? That's the most nonsensical argument I think I have ever heard, and that is really saying something.

you can say cunt you know. No need for the stars

and i "would say that" because we do not get any benefits, none at all. no WTC no CTC, no nothing.

Awful language

Isn't it? And they think they are so cool, using foul language!

I would do it to an enemy, but behind the back of someone I call a friend who thinks I am her friend?? That's low. You should have said something to her face or cut off the friendship but when she is in serious financial difficulties and comes to talk to you I hope you are not so two faced you'll give her a shoulder and sympathetic ear. Shopping a fraudster is one thing, doing it to someone who clearly trusts you is something else entirely. I'd also like to think you had actual proof of everything and didn't just assume you know the situation. People think I have a lot more money than I do and am pulling some sort of scam when I'm not at all and everything is totally above board, I just shop smart and still have nice things from my previous life. There's a huge fashion for interfering in the lives of others lately and it's not always a good thing.

do you know the OP wright?

cos you seem awfully convinced that her friend is a cheat, based on 1 thread? with no actual facts

I never understand why some people are so extremely, bitterly jealous and suspicious of the poor but completely not interested in rich tax-dodgers. Why? Wish someone who posts passionately about benefit fraud but not about tax avoidance would explain why they feel differently about each.

Big businesses who pay poverty wages that have to be topped up with housing benefit/tax credits cost the rest of us millions.

Companies that channel all their UK sales through other countries so they can pay tax in Luxembourg or the Republic of Ireland, instead of paying UK tax on UK activity, cost the rest of us millions (Amazon, for instance.)

The rich who manage to avoid UK tax through various tricks - such as investing in schemes that are designed to 'minimise' tax or claim they are non-doms or a dozen other scams cost the rest of us millions.

Lord Ashcroft was paying no UK tax for years despite sitting in the House of Lords, voting on the taxes the rest of us have to pay, and bankrolling the Tory party. If you live in Bermuda/the Bahamas/wherever, you clearly shouldn't be a member of the House of Lords, you are only -theoretically - allowed in the country for something like 90 days.

But it's one law for the rich and another for the poor.

If the person reported is in full time employment then any short term loss of benefits while the claim is being investigated will not be a major obstacle. OP has estimated the salary using reasonable deduction so she's not going to be thrown out of her home.

If she is claiming legitimately then they will be reinstated and backdated.

Frankly if it looks like a duck, waddles etc

WooWoo deliberately minimised the difficulties and strain involved in caring for a disabled child, and implied it was just the same as normal parenting. She denied that parents saved the state having to pick up the tab.

She eventually conceded (if you can call it that) that it's more expensive for the state to bring up children, but dressed it up with a load of posturing about responsibilities.

The state has made a great deal. Carers' Allowance and DLA are tiny, and the government of the day gets to use potential fraudulent claims as a vote-winner.

Remember OP - this person will see you as a snitch (won't find it hard to work out it's you) and understandably probably avoid you and be angry with you.

I had this years ago - a mutual friend and I were accused of pretending to be a close friend of ours to claim benefits fraudulently. I didn't do it, my friend I'm not sure... but it ended our friendship with the other friend.

It's not the OPs job to establish facts. That's the job of the investigators. OP appears to have reasonable doubt.

And the OP states she is an acquaintance not a friend.

I am also not a friend of either party

reasonable doubt is not "she has loads of handbags and shoes and more money than me and waved her tax credit award about at the school gate so i saw red and reported her."

Reasonable anything parted company with this thread a long time ago

Wrightstuff - an acquaintance yes but surely one who trusted the OP with help over her tax credits (or did I get this wrong) and also knowledge of friends with their salaries etc.

if this comes out the OP could well find herself friendless of her other friends - knowing and discussing or assuming about salaries, snitching on the acquaintance.

I would only do this 100% if I had proof and even then, you have to be a pretty hard hearted and bitter person to do this. Tons of people commit benefit fraud, I'm pleased I'm not on benefits.

Reasonable doubt is KNOWING she works full time, knowing she is claiming for 16 hour, seeing a full time live in boyfriend there.

Handbags and evenings out are irrelevant apart from proving she is not ground down, living hand to mouth, needing food banks etc like so many really deserving people are.

YANBU and they will investigate to establish the full facts so she won't lose out unfairly. I must say though surely she has to show proof of earnings on her tax credit form?

Well handbags and nights out were not irrelevant to the op who says she saw red and reported her instantly.

The op doesn't know this persons circumstances. Sorry but the only way she could know is if she went through her fucking pay slips, bank statements, living expenses, child care bills, looked at the form she filled in for HMRC

So she doesn't know. She is pissed off.

we do not know she is a benefit cheat. Let alone a "clear benefit fraudster

No the op believes she is based in the fact she helped her fill in a claim for part time hours as a single parent when she is working full time alongside another collegue and has her partner living with her which she is not hiding.

Imean shocked so many people condone people fiddling their benefits. I hey enough benefits to live on and if I wanted doing what I do I could quite easily find a fiddle job or take a second fiddle job. I could also move a working partner in.

I don't because it's taking the piss. I work 16 hrs and pay no tax but get HB, WTC and CTB. I have friends who can hardly claim anything, get no help with their rent but pay far more tax than me. They don't get hel because as a couple and both working (min wage jobs) they can't get much. I have one friend who can't get help because her partner gets a Xmas bonus which takes her just over the limit. I also have single friends in flats who are working PL or min wage jobs as they can't find anything else and they are left with hardly anything. They all pay tax and I don't. If I claim as a lone parent working 16hrs a week to get WTC and HB then decided to do more hours and not inform them or to take a second job cash in hand then move in my working boyfriend as well I would fully expect I might get informed on. Why wouldn't I when people are paying tax and getting nothing back. Like I said twice before and posted a link most people don't get their money stopped because someone shops them unless they have some proof. 2 people close to me were shopped, Interviewed under caution and didn't have their money stopped.

Isn't trusting acquaintances to be informed about your financial affairs when you are claiming illegally immensely arrogant?

Doesn't it point to a minority with no social conscience who think no one will bat an eyelid at your deceit?

It appears yes if this thread is anything to go on!

Would you turn a blind eye to a cheating couple if the cheater was the husband of your best friend? Where would your moral duty lie then?

you have to be a pretty hard hearted and bitter person to do this. Tons of people commit benefit fraud, I'm pleased I'm not on benefits.

Or maybe people that report stuff like this have morals, and want to do the right thing regardless of what impact it might have on their relationships ? Jesus.

I was once left by an ex £20k in debt that he ran up in my name and there was nothing I could do about it. He destroyed my job, refused to contribute to house costs which he half owned never mind the debt, and I was left on an income of £288 per month. My council tax alone was £125 per month. I was not entitled to anything else. I had to bend a few rules to get back on track and worked really shitty cash in hand £5 an hour jobs to survive. Had someone then shopped me for that I'd have lost everything and could have ended up with a record and being an even bigger long term burden on the state. Now I'm back on track, in control of manageable finances and self sufficient but had someone shopped me I'd have been FUBAR. I think some people are too quick to judge and too harsh and not all people on benefits are the sponging chavs you see in the Daily Mail and on TV. I bet most people here couldn't survive on benefits and if they suddenly landed in that situation would bend a few rules to get out of it. Unless you think it's better to stay stuck there forever??

Or it might just suggest she has nothing to hide.

In my opinion, someone who is committing fraud is highly unlikely to be flashing their forms around.

Unless they were showing it to us on the bent moral compass bandwagon of course.