Started to resent my friend.

[sweetiehuni]

Friend has 2 kids and is lying that she doesn't have a partner to claim benefits. Her partner earns a really good wage. She keeps showing me all her new stuff she's bought for herself and kids. I'm pregnant and don't claim anything. We are looking into what we can legally claim as could do with some help. My partner works part time as do I but have far less than they do. They are absolutely raking it in and go on hols etc.
Starting to feel really resentful as we have to budget hard and to her money is no object because she just lies.

the amount of money he gives her each week as the father of her children

Maintenance payments don’t affect benefits.

She has no fear because she's as thick as mince.

She'll get found out, then she'll be in the embarrassing position of being prosecuted for fraud and having to pay the fraudulently obtained benefits back. A criminal conviction isn't going to make up for any amount of nice stuff.

"the amount of money he gives her each week as the father of her children"

That's irrelevant. Child maintenance doesn't have any impact on benefits

Tricky. I'd want to report her but I'd be worried it would take away from her kids when she has to pay it all back.

Maintenance payments don’t affect benefits

Don't they? Crikey, when I was claiming benefits in the 1980s when my children were young, the maintenance my ex paid went straight to the benefits people.

the truth will out OP

Next time she starts on about whatever lovely thing she's got - say " I don't want to hear about things you've got illegally"

Maintenance payments don’t affect benefits

Of course they do, do you think someone getting £5k a week from their ex gets the same benefits as someone who gets nothing from their ex?

They definitely do not.

.. And someone receiving £5k a week from an ex probably wouldn't bother with tax credits anyway

They don’t take maintenance payments into consideration.

Surely benefits are paid to supplement an income. If they are adjusted when earned income changes, surely the same should happen with maintenance. Otherwise a resident parent could work their socks off for little extra money, compared to someone being given a similar amount in maintenance. Am I missing something? Because that appears to defy logic.

Report her. She's a thief.

Whether it defies logic or not, it's what happens

Can you imagine the chaos if people had to declare varying amounts of child maintenance? HMRC can hardly get it right when you update change of income.

The amount you receive is the same regardless of maintenance payments to ensure that families get a guaranteed amount of help, regardless of whether an ex partner pays maintenence or not.

Report her on the fraud link on the gov.uk site, the investigators will do the rest.

A woman I know got sentenced to 12 months in prison as a first offender for £30k benefit fraud. She was a childminder and had two kids. Her partner was living with her the whole time and she was brass necked enough to post her family holiday pictures publicly all over Facebook.

There are a lot of people at it but there's definitely more resources going into investigation and prosecution.
There wouldn't be so many cuts to benefits for others in real need if it wasn't for greedy, dishonest people like these.

Report.
www.gov.uk/report-benefit-fraud

They used to count any maintenence from NRP, but they changed it as no one could guarantee that the RP would get the money every week/month.

I work in payroll and I cannot tell you the amount of attachment of earnings orders I receive for people who have fraudulently claimed benefits! Not only will she get caught, her boss could end up receiving one of these letters which would be a tad embarrassing eh?

I honestly don't know why people take the risk. And what baffles me even more is the bragging!!! That's just asking to be grassed up!

I'd report. Every £ people like her get is a £ less for those in real difficulties.

I'd leave them to it (only because I genuinely can't be bothered to waste my energy worrying about other people's business anymore although I get how frustrating it is).

Trust me she'll more then regret what she's doing when she gets found out and have to pay the whole lot back!

I have just been through the system of claiming benefits.
I had to provide reams of paperwork, but never once anything at all about what father pays. Maintenance doesnt affect benefits.

I would report her - but I'm struck by the difference in reactions to this, and the thread where someone was committing tax fraud and the consensus was to mind your own business

They don't count maintenance (I know this has already been said).

However when I lived in Ireland (tbf this was over 7 years ago now so may have changed) I was entitled to lone parents allowance and when my ex started to pay maintenance (when ds1 was 4 years old) the amount he agreed to pay was deducted from my benefit so was actually a massive detriment to me as he never paid it! So I'm glad they don't count it as income anymore.

I'd stay out of it..... if it was me and she was my friend and I stuck her in I would feel guilty for doing it but I'd know it was the right thing to do