Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be annoyed with someone blatantly ' playing the system'

122 replies

Creamcheeseontoast · 10/01/2018 16:44

Just a general annoyance.. A close friend of mine and her husband used to get tonnes in WTC etc.. However he started earning more and they stopped thier payments..
They were annoyed about this and thought it was a struggle getting by. So he has ' moved out' which he hasn't but is using his brothers as a postal address.

They said its wrong how people work they their backsides off and get nothing.
Yet doing it this way she gets her part time wage.. Plus all the help she can which covers bills and his wage is ' spending money' aside from. His own things like car insurance..

It annoys me as I see so many people talking how they generally struggle and then there are people playing the system and get away with it.

Just a general rant really and to see if many others get annoyed by things like this

OP posts:
LordWalterTheCourageous · 10/01/2018 21:02

Round and round we go where does it stop nobody knows....

Choose life !

DuchessofLondon · 10/01/2018 21:13

everyone fiddles the system if they can

No they bloody don't. Hmm

AHungryMum · 10/01/2018 21:23

@Kursk - and when you were gaming the system to save the money to leave the country by avoiding taxes and claiming benefits? You presumably weren't outside the reach of police and burning your own rubbish then...and presumably you had to use our roads, and if you'd got seriously injured you'd have gone to a NHS hospital.

You're a hypocrite. You wouldn't have saved the "decent amount of money" to leave the country if your income had genuinely been low enough to justify the benefits you were on. You gamed the system and it takes the piss.

AHungryMum · 10/01/2018 21:28

@AllMyBestFriendsAreMetal - sorry but someone whose sole income
is state benefits is still a massive net cost to the tax payer even allowing for the VAT they pay on purchases. You are missing the point completely I'm afraid, however well intentioned your post is.

AllMyBestFriendsAreMetalheads · 10/01/2018 21:53

I never claimed that they weren't.

I just feel that talking about "taxpayer's money" misses the point that VAT, council tax, road tax, duty on fuel, tobacco, alcohol etc. etc. are also counted as tax, and if you pay any of those taxes, you count as a tax payer.

It's a meaningless phrase that is only used to pass judgement on others.

(I would also argue that someone whose sole income is state benefits could, in theory, have paid in the past more tax than they will claim in benefits. Any one of us could possibly be weeks or months away from having to be solely reliant on benefits due to circumstances we cannot control. Death and disability can affect anyone, at any time. But that is obviously drifting away from the topic being discussed.)

Kursk · 10/01/2018 23:35

AHungryMum we never claimed benefits. The government didn’t care about me or my family. My family’s survival, success and happiness is down to me and DH and we did what was needed.

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 11/01/2018 00:17

It's too much of a grey area. Eg if it's a family doing it because they have to in order to survive that's very very different to doing it for greed because you want 4 forward holidays and year and designer clothes.

Dilligaf81 · 11/01/2018 00:24

The benefits system is not in its arse because of this. There is more benefits left unclaimed than in fraudulently claimed. The benefits system is on its arse because we have tory government and its idealogical driven push for austerity.
What they are doing is wrong and should be reported but let's not make out these people are running the country to ruins.

KnightsOfCydonia · 11/01/2018 01:01

well i hope she dosent plaster happy family pictures of them all on holiday etc,many have been caught like that

I don't see what this would prove other than they are successfully co parenting.
XH and I have a friendly relationship we have been separated for over a year now but still do an occasional day out together with DC and he has stayed over on Xmas eve the last 2 years, there are a few photos from these times of us all together but that doesn't mean we are back in a relationship!
FWIW in OPs case I agree that if the guy still lives with the woman here then it is fraud.

daisychain01 · 11/01/2018 05:19

OP however you look at it, people who are eligible for WTC or "benefits" whatever, are not living it up. It's a struggle however you look at it.

You can end up frothing with the "shop 'em" brigade, the charming people who say " Report them immediately I pay thousands in tax to fund these people ", or you can detach and get on with life. It's easy to let stuff wind you up and get you angry if you try hard enough.

We pay taxes and we don't get to choose hiw those taxes are spent on, other than at the ballot box, and quite frankly whichever govt is in power, there will always be winners and losers.

daisychain01 · 11/01/2018 05:21

Any one of us could possibly be weeks or months away from having to be solely reliant on benefits due to circumstances we cannot control

Yup, it could be any one of us, at any time. Life's a bitch

daisychain01 · 11/01/2018 05:27

Everyone fiddles the system if they can

Add this trope to the "all men use porn" argument.

Oh and you forgot to add the convincing made up stats like 99% of people would fiddle the system. What a joke.

Battleax · 11/01/2018 05:37

How fortunate that these fraudsters always confess in detail to everyone they know.

DuchessofLondon · 11/01/2018 06:41

I don't see what this would prove other than they are successfully co parenting.

Re social media. I successfully co parent too. Many of us do. He is not on my facebook though. It isn't about them having a nice day out once in a while. The DCs Dad accompanies me on birthday days out for example. That doesn't show we are living together.

It is the constant daily / regular tags and photos of the Dad in the home with the children which raises alarm bells. Especially when some who fraudently claim to be single parents have usually told the benefits agency that 'they haven't set eyes on Dad since the little one was born 8 years ago'. The reality of it usually I he never moved out and is living comfortably rent free whilst working 40hours a week.

AHungryMum · 11/01/2018 07:39

@Kursk on the first page someone else said "Yeah I've heard lots of self employed people talk about how they kept their income under the threshold for child benefit and tax credits". You then said "DH did this for a couple of years to enable us to save up a decent amount to enable us to leave the country".

Are you now saying your DH/you didn't claim child benefit and tax credits between you? Because if you didn't, then keeping his income below that threshold whilst trying to save would have made no sense. And if you did claim them, then you have claimed benefits!

Giraffesarequitetall · 11/01/2018 07:43

If all people on benefits stopped claiming tommorrow, taxpayers would still not have reduction in the tax and NI they pay.It would make no difference.

Don’t be ridiculous! Welfare is the biggest thing taxes are spent on, above NHS and education etc.

makeourfuture · 11/01/2018 08:11

and then there are people playing the system and get away with it.

I was just thinking about this when I read about the billion pound bailout of those train companies. Who can I report it to?

Bumbumtaloo · 11/01/2018 09:05

Regardless of what ‘others’ do - the big companies or individuals who are using loop holes for tax purposes, this is someone who has admitted to the OP that they are committing benefit fraud and should be reported.

I hate admitting I’m on benefits to anyone, in person or online. I always keep hearing about ‘dole dossers’ how easy it is to claim disability benefits and by having a large flatscreen TV or Sky you are the lowest of the low and should get off your arse and go to work like the rest of the hardworking people. How you shouldn’t have children if you can’t afford them - I’m often tempted to ask what I should do with mine, who were born before I got ill. And then be told oh no, not you, it’s the rest of them. As I said in my previous post, I have been reported for benefit fraud twice (that I know of) so obviously they do mean me.

Benefits are an emotive subject, they always will be but it amazes me how people think others should keep their nose out, that ‘others’ do it too etc and yet would have no hesitation in reporting a ‘real’ crime, benefit fraud is a real crime and should be reported.

AHungryMum · 11/01/2018 09:08

@AllMyFriendsAreMetalheads yes people talk about "tax payers money" in order to pass judgement, but given that this thread is about passing judgement on benefit fraudsters (rather than benefit recipients per se) is that really unreasonable? i don't think it is personally...

Pisstaker · 11/01/2018 09:16

Try not giving a fuck what other people do especially when it comes to finances and material things.

Notreallyarsed · 11/01/2018 09:25

Don’t be ridiculous! Welfare is the biggest thing taxes are spent on, above NHS and education etc

Right and you think that if the welfare state were to be cancelled you’d suddenly get a tax rebate? It’s about as likely as Trump saying something reasonable.

makeourfuture · 11/01/2018 09:57

Welfare is the biggest thing taxes are spent on

The great majority on the aged.

AllMyBestFriendsAreMetalheads · 11/01/2018 10:34

HungryMum That's fine. People are free to use whatever meaningless phrases and buzzwords they like. But even benefit fraudsters are taxpayers, so I don't personally see the point.

WRT welfare spending:

In the financial year ending 2017, 42% of welfare spending went on pensions. 1% on unemployment benefits. Pensions and disability benefits account for more of the total welfare bill than all other benefits put together.

visual.ons.gov.uk/welfare-spending/

abbsisspartacus · 11/01/2018 10:39

What burns me is that I'm coming off benefits to go into full time work and it's going to cost me £2000 for childcare for the 6 week holiday that is a, only for four days a week and b, way more than I will earn

DotCottonDotCom · 11/01/2018 10:44

Everyone fiddles the system if they can

That's funny I totally could go without telling anyone i'm self employed on top of my full time job.
But I'm not a dick, i'm registered and I pay my taxes.

Swipe left for the next trending thread