To wonder if benefit fraud is rife

[sam71xxx]

Was at my mums house on Thursday. Post came and 2 bills for my brother were in it. He has lived with his girlfriend for 3 years since moving out of mums. His girlfriend was a single parent to 3 children, living in a HA house. She does not work. Brother works full time earning £38k a year.

I asked why my brothers post was still coming to mums and she said that he is still officially living at her house so they can afford to save for a house deposit! Girlfriend claims as a single parent.

I was gobsmaked! I told mum it was very wrong that low paid people like me and my husband paid taxes and didnt claim a penny in tax credits while others played the system and that I can only dream of saving for a house deposit on a £30k a year combined income! She then got very upset and asked me not to report them (which I won't)

This is the third person in 6 months I have heard of doing this kind of thing (claiming as single). I am beginning to think it is probably more normal than I thing and I am the mug for not claiming as a single parent (I would be much better off!)

Umm, I am! Can post a picture of said pony if you like. And I never mentioned Florida. My mum would do the same if I was happily married, why should she not be able to treat us just because I am a single parent?

Doesn't sit right with my ethics compass to be supported by the state and to have luxurys paid for by parents
Good job it's not your business then.

Just so we can get some facts on those benefit scroungers.

My brother claims JSA and works cash in hand and then has the brass neck to call me a scrounger.

Doesn't make me think families like mine should be penalised because he's a twat.

Oh and monkey, we're 'genuine claimants' and we go camping. Got a problem with that? Have a

I know how you feel ! My sister does this and it really pisses me off and yes I am jealous and bitter about it
Four holidays abroad last year spent thousands on christmas presents and amazing furniture and gadgets whilst I have to scrape together enough to buy a bit of food every week . Her and her partner never declared living together despite being married and theres some rule you can stay together for three nights a week before its classed as co-habiting so he has a room and story for if they ever get caught.

lj plenty of parents give treats and gifts to their children and grandchildren, what's wrong with that? I genuinely cannot understand your point here.

If your parent offered to treat you to a holiday or a day out or a meal in a restaurant, would you turn it down simply because you are not paying for it yourself?

Lors of people do this clamin as single parents when th reailty is their not single my ex is down at him mums he is clearly living with his bf they have3 children of she so fucking single I wonder how the welfare office things she keeps getting pregnant

Oh a do sure so,e muslie knitters will be in here banging on about star bucks tax avoiders

Just because star bucks don't pay their tax don't means others can steal money from the welafre system

I would like both delt with I don't care witch is first it's both money they are not entitled to

Benefit fraud is common in the area I live in, cash in hand jobs and claiming as a single parent when actually living with a partner. It happens, people talk about it fairly freely but it's just the way it is, people struggle to afford to live so they make those choices.

The fact that tax evasion costs the economy x amount more than benefit fraud doesn't detract from the fact that people do claim fraudulently.

The benefits system is a joke, divide and rule

I think to claim to be single parent would be very complicated and rubbish.

Eventually they will leave the system and get their house together, I imagine this happens a lot, but concerns me a lot less than tax evasion.

Housing officers aren't as dumb as people think, having worked in housing they can be like detectives. Watched one of them remember out of thousands of applications that they had seen a child's name before. Turns out members of same family were all claiming that the child lived with them to get priority housing and bigger housing. Most definitely caught and investigated. I think they want to be careful, if you don't grass them up someone else might. I know I'd be tempted if I needed a council house.

Totally agree fizz nuts

People seem to think that because big compiles tax avoid we should somehow let benfit faud slide

Anyone cheating the system should be punished but the Daily Fail and the Selfservatives paint a picture to create hate against those on benefits. A friend of mine was punched in the face because her neighbour did not believe she was blind and she would dodge the blow. of course the police can't press charges as a blind person is an unreliable witness. But as she seems to cope there are those out there that assume she is cheating the system. That is why there are those of us who feel the use of victims to deflect the issue of tax avoidance is nothing other than a crafted scam by those in power to line the pockets of people who have no need for more money. In terms of disability figures DWP were estimating 0.2% of claimants will cheat but that doesn't matter because everyone gets tarred with the same brush.

No one is suggesting that genuine benefit fraud is allowed to 'slide' because of tax avoidance/evasion by multinationals. It's not one or the other.

But what pisses me off is the epidemic of 'ooooh, my next-door neighbours have just gone on holiday and they're on benefits, shall I shop them?' threads, borne out of nothing but jealousy and spite. It's pathetic.

And all the while this country and its poorest citizens are being absolutely shafted by a political class who are wetting themselves with glee that we've all turned on one another, because it distracts from the real story of their pocket-lining greed and incompetence.

Oh and so it's ok for me accept holidays from my parents because i also work, but if I didn't then I would not be allowed to go on holiday with them? How mean

Cross-posts, sausage (my iPad hates me and every post takes ten mins!)

ElectraCute No one is suggesting that genuine benefit fraud is allowed to 'slide' because of tax avoidance/evasion by multinationals. It's not one or the other

No, I think the problem on this thread is that a few posters actually think the issue of tax avoidance is a valid excuse for benefit fraud (can you just imagine that being used in court - no, actually, wait I can...). And if it wasn't tax avoidance, it would be "obscene profits" or "other people are richer than me".

A lot of cases of tax evasion are caught because of people being nosy and reporting things to the authorities that seem odd to them. I think its even listed on the HMSO website or literature somewhere (a lifestyle at odds with likely income). Why this shouldn't also apply to benefits fraud, I fail to see.

I think there are also a lot of cases with suspected tax evasion that are a total waste of time, and people running small businesses have ended up with their lives being made a misery due to a HMSO investigation by a jealous rival or ex-employee.

Even as a woman who earns a good salary, I've had people make comments about how I must be defrauding the Inland Revenue to "be able to afford that car/house", when in reality I suspect that its more that some people still live in the dark ages and think women who earn well don't exist, or are maybe a witch or something. Maybe I just know a lot of nosy nettie types or something. I'm now so paranoid that I don't actually claim back any overpayments of tax and generally get a tax rebate sooner or later. Strangely enough, I know people who have never worked but who live off their parents, who never seem to attract such vitriol.

Well it doesn't anger me as much as the latest MP fraud scandal. Apparently 56 of them have now been caught out claiming for digs and hotels in London while letting out the taxpayer funded house that they own there. They bought the houses (mortgage payments met by the taxpayer) purely for the purpose of work, but since then they've been letting them off for up to 3 or 4 grand a month, while at the same time claiming for hotels for themselves. Pigs caught with their snouts in the trough once again. These are the people who anger me, those and the super rich tax evaders. Let them practice what they preach, until they do I refuse to get het up about the little people.

Maybe it is the kind of people you know op? My friends don't do this.

Our neighbours do this! 'Single dad' claims but partner has been living with them for two years. Every so often she'll disappear for a few days back to the house she's claiming on but they are definitely co-habiting!

Mariam Maybe it is the kind of people you know op? My friends don't do this.

Yes, I think so Mariam. Getting tax rebates from the Inland Revenue without applying for them is a bit unusual I think. Which makes me think that people I know must have contacted them about me.

BIL for instance: "How do you afford that house/how do you afford to work part-time?" "Well, we built the house ourselves and saved a lot of money that way and anyway its only worth the same as yours and you get paid less than us" and "because I get paid a high hourly rate". BIL looks sceptical at this.

And I do often wonder if his obsessive interest is due to covering up something himself. But that way lies paranoia - almost like everyone is informing on each other, not a nice way to live.

And I hasten to add I don't claim benefits of any sort - I simply work and pay a mortgage. Yet I get all sorts of people making comments about my income, so I can't see why it would be any different for benefits claimants. tbh I'd be a nervous wreck if I were on them!

Well then report them OP, it will be slightly less rife then!

I'm interested that in your OP you say you and your husband are low paid, but you don't claim a penny in tax credits. I assume you mean that you are eligible for tax credits, but don't claim them? You are cutting off your nose to spite your face if that's the case. Whatever the Daily Mail may tell you, there is nothing wrong with claiming what you are entitled to. Though what your brother is doing is wrong!

I assumed op means they don't have a high wage, but not low enough to get tax credits. If you do not have kids, the level of income to get tax credits is very low.

I know of three friends who do this.