Do I keep quiet or report for potential benefit fraud?

[Keepnoseoutorreport]

I've namechanged (feel free to check with HQ)

So an acquaintance has had anxiety for years, claims PIP and can't work. I have anxiety too and know how crippling it can be it's absolutely horrific and find at its worst it stops me engaging in a social life, stops me sleeping, and I can barely function. So I'm not without sympathy.

However. This acquaintance has for the past 6 weeks without fail been out 2 or 3 times a week on big nights out, music gigs, hen dos etc and posted the photos all over facebook. In the next post the next day moaning that she is broke, too unwell to work and scared of losing her PIP

Now I'm getting pretty sick of it and feel she is taking the piss a bit and the way I see it I have a couple of options;

1. congratulate her on her recovery and quietly suggest she minds her Facebook closer as people may not take kindly to her posts

2. report her to dwp

3. seethe, delete and ignore and let her trip herself up in due course.

I'm torn between 1 and 3 in all honesty.

Do these snitches have nothing better to do than sit on the phone or on line clactailing to the DWP. Have they not got lives

You can't assume that her illness affects her in the same way that yours affects you. Anxiety is different for everyone

Yeah but come on. Really?
People tripping over themselves to tell you that obviously she could be suffering such severe anxiety she is unable to work, but it totally fits that shes' a social butterfly with a rich and varied nightlife....chinny reckon.

I had to go to court to save my home over false claims, my income was £100 less for months, Dd cant claim ESA because of it.
I did nothing wrong which was acknowledged and I got the back payment, but where do you think my anxiety comes from?
It could happen again at any time.
Jealous people, busybodies, people who think they 'know'.

@IronMansIronButt Work requires someome to be well enough to attend at all times of their shift. Enjoying a night out doesn't.
Do you know her?

3

I wouldn't report anyone for anything, but come on. Be real.

I’m in receipt of PIP; in fact I’m out of work and in receipt of every benefit that I’m entitled to. I have a degenerative spine condition, a brain injury and fibromyalgia. I can rarely walk more than a couple of hundred yards even with my stick, I’m in pain 100% of the time, and I use a mobility scooter for longer distances. I’ve never used my scooter around the village where I live though, as, quite frankly, I feel like a tit on it and I’m worried about being judged, so I either hobble short distances with my stick, or I get in the car and drive. Or I just don’t go out at all, but people never see that.

I recently took my son to a theme park and, yep, I posted pictures on Facebook. I had one comment off a now deleted so called friend saying “Is your back better then if you can walk round and go on all those rides?”

What you don’t see in pictures is that I was using a mobility scooter but had got off it for the pictures, I was in considerable pain all day, but I put a smile on as my son was having fun, and I didn’t go on a single bloody ride all day! In fact it was shit, my idea of hell at the minute if I’m honest, but I’m not going to post on Facebook saying I’m having a shit day, I’m in pain, can’t feel my feet anymore from sitting in one position all day, tomorrow will be a complete write off because of this “nice” day out, and oh here’s a picture of the disabled woman on her scooter am I? Instead I put on a brave face and then feel like I’m being judged for appearing normal! Can’t bloody well win!

In answer to your op, keep your beak out as you haven’t got a clue.

@IronMansIronButt Be real about what?
How can someone possibly tell someone how their illness is affecting them?

Try option 4, wind your neck in and stay out of matters that don't concern you.

I think a lot of people don't want to realise that Facebook shows snapshots of someone's life. It makes the benefit fraud accusations much harder if you actually try to understand. Are ill or disabled people meant to stay holed up in the house, never doing anything remotely fun?

which is why people are being called in for reassessment as they screwed up so many assessments with a mental health element

No, that's not what is happening.

You are mistaken at best, goady at worst.

@justbeingjobless

You have very similar conditions to me. I'm so sorry you feel like that - it's awful. I spend 99% of my time living in my bedroom. On the very rare occasion I go out (twice so far this year) and post photos of my day, I can guarantee I'll get passive aggressive comments saying that people are "glad I'm better now", asking when I'm going back to work and things to that effect.

I have a chronic illness, a degenerative bone condition, PTSD and anxiety and I'm in a wheelchair.

I literally cannot enjoy anything any more because even if I have a day where I'm good enough to leave my home, people don't think I should take advantage of it.

It's absolutely appalling.

"which is why people are being called in for reassessment as they screwed up so many assessments with a mental health element"
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, where do you get your "information" from?

Firstly, it’s absolutely not true that it’s harder to get PIP for MH issues. It’s actually much more difficult for variable physical conditions (speaking as someone who’s been unable to work for 7 years due to chronic fatigue and pain that has required morphine every 4 hours without fail for over a decade, and who’s never had a penny in disability benefits).

The truth is, it’s extremely difficult for ANYONE to get PIP these days. If she has it, there’s a good reason. Do you have any concept of how difficult the application and assessment process is? Any idea what a report could do to someone in this situation?

She may be having a good week. Sadly I’ve never met an employer who’d be happy to take me on because I might have a good week followed by god knows what for how many weeks or months - and even if I did, I COULD STILL GET PIP.

Whether she works or not is irrelevant, so whether you perceive that going out when she feels up to it is an indication of her ability to work is also irrelevant. She’s been assessed as needing financial assistance to offset the difficulties of living with a limiting disability. Being sociable is nothing to do with it.

I suffer from dreadful anxiety too, but it wouldn’t be triggered in any way by going to a gig (not that I’ve tested that theory in a long while!)

It is arseholes like you that made me give up my pip claim. I could not suffer the anxiety I felt claiming it when some months I had more good days. I couldnt spend the money for fear of having to pay it back if I was "caught" living a normal life... I have a debilitating long term illness that means sometimes i need help dressing sometimes i need help cooking sometimes i cant walk and many more things i sometimes need help with. I was given PIP after a medical assessment in my own home but after a few raised eyebrows from friends when i mentioned i was receiving it i started getting paranoid.... people forget they dont see what goes on behind closed doors. They dont see the tears, the frustration or feel the pain. They see the public face, the smile the person charging on through the pain to have some sort of normal life so yeah go ahead and report and hopefully karma will get you one day.

@ICantCopeAnymore it’s so wrong that on a rare “good” day (as in not quite as bad as usual), we’re made to feel guilty for daring to attempt to be normal just for a few hours. I feel like people are judging me constantly and looking for a way to trip me up.

You can’t win, can you? Don’t try to hide how much you’re suffering, and people drop you like a shot. Hide it and put on a brave face and try to live and people call you a faker and threaten to report you.

Disgraceful.

Justbeingjobless - so accurate. That FB timehop thingy "5 years ago you posted this" brings up happy looking smiling photos of me doing stuff sometimes. The memories/reality don't match. They don't show the weeks of anxiety in the lead up, the panic attack as I left home, me vomiting from the side effects of the pain meds necessary to physically GET there, the sleepless night later on when the pain meds wore off, the utter exhaustion from pushing myself to DO that (mainly for dd) the next day/week that floored me... FB is NOT real life.

I have days that are RELATIVELY normal and others where physical or mental pain make just shifting position in bed a challenge. Where just the thought of brushing my teeth can bring on a panic attack.

Socialising is an important and common element of recovery.

It's getting out and doing something, pushing boundaries, developing resilience without being held to a commitment as you would in a job. When I'm better than I am now I can do a night out, doesn't mean I'm up to committing to even a part time job. Not only would that be too much for me health wise it would be a nightmare for an employer! "Oh yea can't come in today because I had a nightmare that was triggering" "can't come in today because I can't convince my stupid brain that the door is definitely locked" give me strength!!!

I think you mean this, OP.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/government-will-not-appeal-high-court-ruling-over-mental-health-discrimination_uk_5a62197de4b0125fd6363304

Option 4 - realise you don’t know her whole story, give yourself a talking to about being mean and judgmental, log off Facebook and be a better version of yourself

As a mental health nurse ... keep your nose out .

Anxiety can be awful but if she's telling the state she can't possibly work yet has no issues with all the things in Facebook something doesn't add up.

Boxsets - are you that cretinous that you don't realise holding down a job and going out socially are two completely different things?

@ICantCopeAnymore Boxsets is known for inflammatory posts unfortunately.