Reporting a friend for Ben fraud

[username1423]

I have been thinking about it a long long time. I feel sick reporting her but at the same time sick of her dishonesty.
She is claiming benefits for her young son and a council place. She’s openly told me she gets a lot from government.

He on the other hand has a lot of money and is using her flat as a place to stay as he still lives with his mum and dad.
I didn’t report because she’s had a rough time and she kept telling me he’d use his money to pay for a place for them all soon.

However, she’s now been with this guy for about 3 years and he has a lot of money and is very flashy and open about it. Her ds even has a car seat in the back of his new Porsche sports car.
Im torn as a friend as I think she deserves to have an ok time as she’s had a rough time in last few years with ds absent dad but now she could be with this guy and living with him and working but she’s choosing to keep council place as in her words ‘she’d rather put the money on designer clothes and champagne’
Aibu to report her or should I just stay out of it. I feel like I can’t be her friend and meeting up with her is awful as recently she’s been buying things on the bf credit card and then selling them to me to get cash and I only found out she was doing it through another friend and I told her I wasn’t comfortable as the bf thought my f has bought the stuff for me as a present and doesn’t know she’s been selling me the items so when I see him I don’t say thanks and he’s told me he thinks I’m rude not saying thanks for what my friend got me etc, I’ve never told him.
She’s been so dishonest with me I feel like it’s time to report now because it’s getting way out of hand,I recently watched her pay £1k for a designer dress and then go back to her council place where he’s always there!
But I don’t want to be a nasty person!

Even if he moved in with her, they would still be entitled to remain in her home.

If you did report her, do you realise he would get away with being unquestioned and unpunished, even though they are in it together, as she is the person making the claim, not him. She will end up with a criminal record, which may prevent her from getting a job in the future. She will also have to pay every penny deemed to have been claimed fraudulently back! So, if they split up after she had been reported, he gets no consequences and she gets stuck with loads!

If you are her friend, you won't report her, but it might be a good idea to point out that someone might report her!

I don't know why so many people are supporting the friend, that's all of our money that we are paying in tax being defrauded! You should absolutely report her, and so should everyone else if they know of someone defrauding the system. They will open an investigation and send her a letter telling her so. She will not know that it's you it could be one of the neighbours that reports her.

I like Ben, you should stop picking on him.

Yabu to call her a friend op....
What a nasty society we live in

FreudianSlurp

Op said she has shown me letters from the government and I know what she claims as she is open about it I am aware that she is covering what she’s doing up because she needed some money from him and I said why don’t you get him to transfer it to you and she said no because she didn’t want anyone to find out about it as it might affect her.

so clearly she knows, she's just not detailing it here.

I have a family member I know for a fact had never officially moved in with his financee. She bought a house in her name, he’s moved in but still uses parents address. She only work part time so gets tax credits and help with child care. So it really happens.

Personally I couldn’t live with the fear of being caught.

If he is actually living there, report them and distance yourself. There's such a shortage of social housing. If he's not living there whilst immoral it's not illegal, but as you have very different values still distance yourself.

Live the best life you can. Stop comparing what you have to what others have. Live for yourself and your family.

Ignore what you haven't got.

Take pride in your life.

Do not allow jealousy to take up ANY of your time.

It is consuming a part of your life that could be better spent.

I call bullshit.

You are a journalist with a deadine for the Daily Mail.

deadline

Next time he gets pissed at you for not saying thanks, TELL HIM!
Tell him you don't usually say thanks for something she sold you.
Tell him you are confused because he seems to think she has gifted you stuff that you paid for.
And Yes, by claiming benefits as a single person with a child when he lives there seven days a week, it is fraud. As to the housing situation, morally wrong but nothing you can do about it.

Of course she’s committing benefit fraud , up to you if you report her though .
I imagine you’re getting a lot of stick on here because some of those commenting are doing the same thing .
People are beyond sneaky when it comes to benefit fraud , one way to avoid being caught is to make sure the school have two addresses for the parents . One address is usually the dads parents . Oh and don’t post pictures of daddy /boyfriend on Facebook .

Reporting people for benefit fraud doesn't save the taxpayer anything - itcosts the system money as they have to waste resources investigating the 97 odd percent malicious/false reports.

It probably helps actual fraudsters get away with it.

UpstartCrow What a bizarre answer.
So it's OK to let the 'actual fraudsters' (ie those committing benefit fraud) to get away with it .... ?

She won’t get turned out of her council house. Benefit fraud investigation yes. So all her money will stop. So be Damn sure you know your right before you report her.

I may have missed something but you can report even if you're not sure. They'll simply investigate or generally they'll send a letter out asking to confirm that they are indeed single (as in the 25% single person discount on council tax) and if she is getting other benefits then, of course, they'll be effected if he lives there.
We lose millions, if not billions, every year to fraudulent claims when it's clear they're not entitled. If we all turn the other cheek then the figure will remain high.
Contrary to popular belief they don't stop paying as soon as someone reports. Someone decided I'm not single and I got a letter asking me to confirm it as they 'has reason to believe I had someone else living here'. I've been single for years and not even dating so no idea where that came from!!!

He could leave her high and dry at any moment. They aren't married and don't cohabit do leave her alone. I too think you sound over interested and jealous

Why is she selling you things she bought on his card? Isn't that being very crap to him?

They do cohabit. He lives with her 7 days a week.

Years ago, Housing had an anonymous call that my friend's boyfriend was permanently living with her even though she was claiming full benefits, including full housing benefit, and also had her child there, so getting child benefit too.

Apparently DSS did a stake-out at her place for 7 days(I think) and saw him arriving/leaving over that time, which verified what they'd been told.

I know that her housing benefit was stopped, don't know if she had to pay anything back tho.

She still doesn't know who told DSS tho.

Only telling you this cos if you do decide to shop your friend, an anonymous call to DSS will start the process.

It's up to you to act as you wish.

I would be pissed off at her too. TBH I would just cut all ties with her- I wouldn't want to be friends with someone like that. Someone who is happy to waste the money she gets from the government on frivolous things like designer clothes.

It's funny how these types of thread always involve the 'concerned citizen' (cc) having a friend who is so open about the fraud they are supposedly committing, then cc has actually seen evidence of fraud such as letter but then disappear when asked tricky questions like what benefits are being claimed or when it's being pointed out that it might be perfectly legit to claim anyway.

Would report in a flash. Why should I pay tax for someone like this? There are genuinely needy people waiting for council accommodation. However, it seems that those who do this know full well how to 'play the system' so it may be that nothing changes. Don't know the age of the child, but he's also being shown that cheating the system is normal.

BS.