To think reporting someone to dwp for going on holiday is ridiculous?

[CactusJelly00]

As it doesn't actually mean they're hiding income!
It's happened to someone I know; and she's now in the unfortunate situation of having some of her money stopped while everything is investigated and being treated like a criminal, as someone has reported her for having undeclared income.... because she went on holiday!
Aibu to think this is a ridiculous reason to report someone?
They know who's done it and why, but now she still has to prove herself to the DWP and I just think it's awful that someone's reported her for that.
Would anybody report someone for that? I just can't understand it.

For out-of-work benefits, you aren't entitled to any money if you go abroad, because you can't take up a job if one becomes available

You are entitled to money if you meet your obligations ie. seek work.
You will be sanctioned if you get an interview and don't attend because you are on holiday.

You don't get your entitlement stopped because you go on holiday, only if that holiday prevents you doing what you should be doing.

I had a friend on benefits (JSA, I think, I don't know the details, it was years ago. )

She volunteered at some kind of day centre (Not sure if it was helping with adults with SEN, or if it was a kind of Job hunting, skill improving club) The clients knew that she had the same income as them, as they were on similar benefits.

Yet she seemed able to go away on 'holiday' and they couldn't afford it.
They sat down and looked at what they were all spending money on, and discovered that they were just choosing to spend on different things, and the occasional beer, cigarette, bag of chips, CD or DVD, which they bought, and she chose not to in order to save, allowed her to afford the 'holiday'.
She said it was an eye-opener for all involved.

(The 'holiday' was a religious pilgrimage, sleeping on a church hall floor, where the unwaged paid a reduced rate, so didn't cost that much. )

Sorry, that should be other benefits as far as I know you don't need to let them know.

Though I've x-posted with others who explain this.

The thing is everybody thinks that if your on benefits they know exactly how the system works (when the dwp don't even know how the system works) so if your not living by their set of rules you must be commiting benefit fraud.

The benefit claimant in question is not on JSA, so please stop referring to it.

What a petty person to report her. There are lots of ways someone on benefits could go on holiday without defrauding the system. They could have paid for it before going on benefits, be visiting family, have picked up £5 Ryanair flights or be on a Sun £9.50 holiday, or been given the trip as a gift.

Some of the attitudes towards people of benefits on here is disgraceful.
I have been on full benefits for 10 years now, I sole care for my severely disabled son. I haven't had a full nights sleep for 10 years, I need a holiday but unfortunately can't afford one. Living on benefits is NOT fun, god forbid some of you end up in my position.
It is a total myth that people on benefits are flitting off abroad every year.
I didn't know about the Family Fund, I'm off to google now. A week in Butlins would be heaven right now and I bloody deserve it!

I remember when I was claiming benefits due to ill health and had to provide evidence to the DWP that my parents had paid for my holiday to Florida as a 21st birthday present before I was allowed to sign back on.

“Fraudulent claims are a fucking red herring. Benefits bashing is a tool used to divide and conquer the working class. And guess what? - They are fucking winning this battle”

Well said - what people may not realise is aside from job seeking benefits such as JSA, it is permissible for claimants to go away, wherever the hell they want to, for a period of not more than 28 days.

Dm voted with a party who side with the Tories because she was annoyed at a lady she knew who kept going back to her home country on holidays despite claiming HB etc. My DH went bananas saying she was going to punish me and other disabled people just to get back at one woman. She said “oh no, that wouldn’t happen, surely disabled people will be unaffected”. She sorely regrets her decision now seeing the red tape disabled people and claimants have to go through now.

Family Fund is great @DrainedandConfused It's definitely worth a look into and you can get it every year as well. My little brother gets it as he's severely disabled

Yellow perhaps you'd like to revise your post regarding people with disabilities.

Some of us, who can't afford but oh so desperately need a holiday would appreciate an apology.

Wait till the Daily Mail starts bashing benefits claimants again about the audacity of holidays. It’s as if people think claimants don’t experience their own stresses and anxieties - are only the employed entitled to trips away to recuperate and relax?

A girl I know from school (left at 16 and never worked a day in her life), has 3 kids and was given a new-build house on social housing - drives a BMW and was able to take her family of 5 to Disneyworld Paris this year (along with multiple other trips away in the past year).

DP and I are in well-paying professional jobs, and after paying mortgage, bills etc and would have to save a lot for the luxuries this family afford themselves. Correct me if I am wrong, but should there be an incentive to find work? I am not begrudging a family a holiday, but unless someone else is paying this family to go on numerous trips a year, there is no incentive for them to go out to find work. It's not that someone who doesn't work shouldn't be more well off than someone who does (as obviously there are inheritance/lotto winnings etc) but no way should someone on benefits be more well off than someone who works.

This is in no way an attack on people who are on benefits as obviously there are people who can't work for various reasons - but someone on JSA shouldn't be able to afford big trips away every year. Why would they go back to work?

I thought they made it quite clear that if you go away while claiming benefit they'd query it - so I'm surprised she didn't provide paperwork to show you paid for it initially?

I know someone whose GP suggested they might find a bit of relief from their lifelong disability with yoga/pilates, but she won't go because she's afraid someone will photograph her walking across a car park with a yoga mat and then "Too Ill To Work Benefits Cheat Enjoys Gym Visit" would be splashed across the Daily Mail, and then her claim would be suspended.

A girl I know from school (left at 16 and never worked a day in her life), has 3 kids and was given a new-build house on social housing - drives a BMW and was able to take her family of 5 to Disneyworld Paris this year (along with multiple other trips away in the past year

No she doesn't, not unless family are paying for it all. It's simply not possible on any benefit.

I actually think some employed people are far more grabby and entitled than any person I've ever met in receipt of benefits. They think they are entitled to everything their wage affords them, all the time at home the under/un-employed person has and any frivolities the under/un-employed person has they 'can't afford' without changing their lifestyle.

DP and I are in well-paying professional jobs, and after paying mortgage, bills etc and would have to save a lot for the luxuries this family afford themselves.

If this is true, and that woman does not intend to work or train, she will suddenly find herself at a certain age with most benefits stopped and a pretty bleak looking future. Why be envious of that?

She's not doing that on benefits, 26. There's money coming from some other source to fund that lifestyle.

She would not have had her benefit stopped whilst they investigated. The only way her money would have been stopped would be if they had asked her for an interview and she failed to attend without contacting them at all.
Most benefits allow people to go abroad for up to 4 weeks

A lot of the time it really is down to budgetting and how good you are at managing money.

I am alone with 2 DCs one disabled and I am their carer so rely on benefits. It is not by any means fortunes but I don't smoke, go out partying or buy branded food etc. I am quite good at managing money so manage to put aside some every month to be able to take away DCs (only UK due to disability needs) atleast once a year, a lot of friends I know who get more than me through working or working husbands don't manage this because they have more "luxury" outgoings like flash cars or having big tv packages and such things.

Drainedandconfused,
I need a holiday but unfortunately can't afford one.

I wish this thread had been 3 weeks ago :(

I would have lent you my house in Norfolk between tenants. Sadly I can't now because it flooded in the snow (tank in loft completely cracked). Typical shit timing eh x

A girl I know from school (left at 16 and never worked a day in her life), has 3 kids and was given a new-build house on social housing - drives a BMW and was able to take her family of 5 to Disneyworld Paris this year

Cool anecdote. How do you know she isn't drowning in debt? Even fraudulently claiming the highest amount of benefits would not allow this amount of luxury.

Family of 5 - 3 kids and a partner then?

So she doesn't work. You know that. What does her partner do? What benefits does she claim? How much money is she claiming weekly?

Unless you have seen a spreadsheet of her incomings and outgoings, how do you know what is going on in her household?

If she went abroad she probably should have considered how breaking her claim may impact on her in the future. For example, I understand new claimants will only be entitled to a repayable loan for their mortgage payments - not sure of the date that is to be implemented.Therefore, people should be really careful about breaking the continuity of their claim, so going abroad could cost them thousands and have implications on their financial situation for decades.

Not everyone on benefits is just getting the basic £73 a week JSA FGS. We get a substantial amount (over £28k a year) due to there being three disabled people in the family and a carer. It allows us to save up and go on holidays to places like Disneyland Paris - we go by coach and there are good deals out of school holidays. We also use Family Fund every year (not for holidays, as the voucher scheme they use isn't good value for money, but usually for gadgets or household goods). The disabilities are long term so I'm on income support as a carer and I don't have to seek work at all. I think we only have to notify DWP about going abroad if it's for 13+ weeks on DLA/PIP (have never been for longer than 2 weeks so not really checked exactly).

@purpleleotard

^Benefit fraud is a bit like insurance fraud in that it is perceived as a victim less crime.
Except the people who pay are your fellow Brits. They are funding the fraudsters' illegal gains either through higher taxes for benefit or premiums for insurance.^

Nonsense. Fraud makes up a tiny amount of the overall benefits bill and is dwarfed by the amount that is unclaimed - many people don't claim all that they're entitled to.