AIBU to be angry with DH for reporting my DB for benefit fraud

[ninja1890]

Help first time post as I need some perspective please. My DH has confessed to me that he has recently reported my DB for benefit fraud.

We have both suspected for some time that this is the case as he is a single father and seems to have alot of excess income. Think haircuts, tattoos, new clothes weekly nights out etc. He has never worked and has just booked a holiday and is saving to get married to his new partner - they don't currently live together.

We don't have any proof but DH reasons that if we suspect we should report. I can't help feeling angry that he has done this. If my DB isn't defrauding the system he has nothing to worry about but it will probably result in a suspension of benefit and worry. Also I am worried about the implications for my DN etc

InisSunset - because the Tories don't gain anything from maligning their rich mates. They only gain by turning the general public on each other by encouraging an 'I'm alright Jack' mentality.

@Gileswithachainsaw surely a "cash in hand job" is benefit fraud...

I know it is. I was saying he could be being dishonest nut there a re more ways that weren't dishonest lime the credit cards etc

just emphasising that there coukd he a number reasons and less are fraud than not.

I've just had a look at that link and it just shows how easy it must be to cause trouble for someone (regardless of whether they're committing fraud or not>. Most of all the old sayings are true and the one that comes to mind here is "the devil makes work for idle hands".

Cash in hand jobs are often used to refer to short hour jobs with small employers who pay cash.

They are not illegal and they are not automatically indicative of fraud. Many small employers pay like this and it is totally above board.

He is also entitled to earn a small sum of money each week without impact on his benefits, I haven't worked for the dwp for a few years now but off the top of my head it's £20 for a lone parent.

Just for you info .. dwp won't suspend benefit while they investigate. They investigate first, gather evidence, interview under caution (if there is evidence of offence) and then suspend benefit if appropriate. They might find no evidence in which case the case would be closed and db would never know there had been an allegation. It's hard to live on benefits let alone save for a wedding so I can see why you might be suspicious. Also they categorically do not prosecute you if you make an allegation that comes to nothing. Apart from anything you can make allegations anonymously. If this was a possibility then no one would report anyone. . Hope this helps.

""you are spending regular time with a partner in their own home not your property you can be seen as living together""

No you can't, you've got to fit a criteria that shows that your households are joined.

""The investigation will be gentle""

I was interrogated over the telephone when claiming CTC, it turned out that it was a case of identity theft and a man was trying to use my address to obtain loans, the most annoying part was that he was never prosecuted for this.

They also quizzed me on whether my DD, who has a lifelong condition, still needed the disability premium, threatening me with suspension.

I've attended interviews with neighbours etc. The DWP speaks to people and gives incorrect legal information in a way that no other organisation would get away with.

When I worked in a Welfare Rights Organisation we had very vulnerable people come in who had been frightened into closing their claim down.

I think that anyone who thinks the Government and DWP act in a fair manner should spend a couple of weeks in a Welfare Rights centre, I'll guarantee that you'd change your opinion.

""DWP won't suspend benefit while they investigate.""

What I've known to happen is that they make life very difficult, such as giving appointment times that they know will be difficult to keep, or suddenly put someone on a course they won't cope with.

Then they sanction.

It is a punishment for being poor and unemployed.

Exactly Birds and they must be rubbing their hands with glee at how eager the poor will turn on the equally poor, while the rich just carry on screwing everyone over.

How nasty and spiteful

Cash in hand jobs are often used to refer to short hour jobs with small employers who pay cash. They are not illegal and they are not automatically indicative of fraud. Many small employers pay like this and it is totally above board.

I echo you NeedsAsockamnesty. Cash is legal tender. There's nothing illegal in being paid with it.

DH pays people in cash if they would prefer it. They're usually people who do those short hour jobs you refer to. They know he will make all payments clear on his tax returns - including VAT, in which he is basically an unpaid collector of tax for the Government. Beyond that, it is not up to him to ask them about their business, much less report them for fraudulent activity.

Some customers ask for a discount for cash. He'll give them a discount if he wants, but the payment goes through the books. That's how it works. The most respectable-seeming people have this weird view that they can offer cash to small traders and get a bit knocked off because they are obviously on the fiddle.

It's not always the dodgy-looking ones you have to look out for.

Those of you whining about benefit scroungers should probably have a read of this. You fucking mugs.

What I've known to happen is that they make life very difficult, such as giving appointment times that they know will be difficult to keep, or suddenly put someone on a course they won't cope with.

Yes

Your husband sounds like a twat!

Didn't the nazis convince the people that the Jews were the cause of all their woes. So many would have lived but for malicious anonymous calls to their headquarters. Not a just comparison I know but I can see the similarities. The poor are being persecuted.

Just thought on. He might have put in for a budgeting loan.

None was better at it in the Eastern Bloc than East Germany and the Stasi.

Normally Iain Duncan Smith condemns Communism. But it has its good points...

I wonder what is the ratio of women making false rape allegations to people making false allegations of benefit fraud.

After all, there is a no-questions-asked hotline for allegations of benefit fraud which suggests that people will be in no way motivated by malice. And yet none exists for allegations of rape. Perhaps we should set one up.

And then if people lied, perhaps we could insist they both be pursued with the same rigour.

""Didn't the nazis convince the people that the Jews were the cause of all their woes. So many would have lived but for malicious anonymous calls to their headquarters. ""

That's what always goes through my mind on threads like these.

So much hatred and general dislike for our fellow humans, you can feel the glee in some posts that someone who isn't wallowing in the misery that they should be, because they date to be on benefits, will now be put through some distress.

It's quite scary that so many people still believe the propaganda put about, about certain groups, almost 70 years later.

It makes you wonder why we haven't progressed in our critical thinking.

*solid" thanks for sharing that article. So much truth, albeit frightening.

Bold, though most people in the UK support benefits being limited to 2 or 3 children. That plan is not at all unpopular and is very sensible. Why should the rest of us support other people's large families?

there is a no-questions-asked hotline for allegations of benefit fraud which suggests that people will be in no way motivated by malice.

I made a mistake there.

I meant to say that people might be motivated by malice when faced with a quick and easy, no questions asked, hotline.

That kind of thing is tempting for people wanting an easy way to mess up someone's life with no come back, isn't it?

Or is that just me?

If only we had somewhere to send all those unwanted children, DeoGratias.

Like a private island, maybe. It would be really great if a public-spirited person who owned such a thing would donate it for the good of the nation.

Don't you think?

Limited, she sold it awhile ago.

Back in my day the overwhelming majority of tip offs about benefit fraud amounted to nothing, claims were checked nothing was wrong with them.

The majority of them coincidently had had a faily recent falling out with someone or neighbour issues. A surprising amount of reports quite obviously came from family.

The team I worked with was considered to be one of the most successful at preventing fraud around yet still the majority of these reports were false ones. Ones that came from employers often weren't (IS claiments so allowed to work) but people do not tend to really know the ins and outs of other adults finances, they see what the other person wants them to see and it swings both ways from rich people wishing to appear poor and poor people wishing to appear well not poor