AIBU to report her for benefit fraud...

[Bringyourown]

Very long story short. Person I know has been claiming benefits for at least 7 years I've known her.
Now this is a case of sour grapes, she misrepresented herself to me and basically used me for all she could get out of me, and me being stupid and gullible and so happy that someone liked me that I gave her everything I could.
I've been stewing on this for months and my mental health has broken down to the point I just can't get out of bed. I have nothing and nobody left.
She is a dog walker/boarder, horse trader and now a scrap metal merchant.
Should I report her or should I just put it down to experience?

Report, she sounds like someone I used to know. Went designer shopping, then came knocking on my door for help when she had nothing. I decided once to test the friendship, by not giving her a lift one day. Hell broke loose so that was that for me after that little drama!

Report, she sounds like someone I used to know. Went designer shopping, then came knocking on my door for help when she had nothing. I decided once to test the friendship, by not giving her a lift one day. Hell broke loose so that was that for me after that little drama!

Four fried all the jobs the OP mentioned and mostly self employed jobs so she could easily be saying she isn’t working and getting cash in hand . The op hasn’t really came back and filled us in on anything.

Oh FourFriedChickensDryWhiteToast you are so naive.

It's because there are still a shit load of employers who pay 'cash in hand' which is below the UK minimum wage, because they know they can employ desperate people on those terms. They don't need to pay tax, NI or pensions contributions. The black economy. And because the employees don't appear on any employee or HMRC records they can continue to claim benefits. The taxpayer subsidises the employer's business. It's an age old scam. And they give them time off to sign on.

I wonder if all the people trying to stick up and make excuses for benefit fraud are at it themselves .

Auditbird - I am not "naïve" thanks, I know very well that employers take the piss...ergo...join the dots.

And no, "sweetsomethings" I am not doing benefit fraud - that is a totally crap argument. 'Ad hominem'.

FourFriedChickensDriedWhiteToast . yes but if you really are the kind of person who goes around worrying that someone might have a fiver a week too much, or whatever, then perhaps it should cross your mind that benefits are suspended at once, in this case. Therefore your 'righteous' action could lead to people including ones under 18 , going hungry.
If that is your bag, I pity you.

I have found your naivety and complete lack of any remote grip on the reality of benefit fraud, - quite amusing- until you start to feel sorry for people actually protecting the public purse from thieves... now you are just being unbelievably ridiculous.

1. We don't prosecute or investigate for a fiver . I am a fully qualified counter fraud investigator. I don't come cheap. We have a 'cut off' . (Which I obviously won't disclose)

1. A fiver ? Fuck off. My 'average' case was £275k.

1. My last 2 cases were in the papers. One for 4m the other for 8m. (Last one came from an allegation on the public fraud line of a neighbour appeared to be working more than declared earnings for tax credits. 18months of investigation later, turned out to be something much much bigger) so who knows where the OPs report could go ?

Well from your post FourFriedChickensDryWhiteToast you totally are.. I'm at a loss as to where in your post you acknowledge people being shafted by their employers.

According to your post of Sun 19-Aug-18 19:09:04 they're all on the fiddle.

Yes I'd report. 100%

You know someone has lost their argument when they stoop to name calling

..in reponse to being called a benefit fraudster, by someone who knows nothing at all about me. Makes her a bit of a cah if you ask me..:)

I said you were naive. I never said you were complicit with benefit fraud. Your posts indicate that you assume everyone is guilty until presumed innocent. And I didn’t slander you at all. I never said anything to criticise you out loud. Which is what slander is.

oh lol it must have been the other one.
My apologies to you AuditBird, please accept x

I do know the difference between libel and slander, just wasn't sure what internet texting would count as..:)

Ha, no worries, no probs, no apology necessary. Debate is good, even if we don’t agree all the time xx

@AuditBird

"Who is talking about five quid too much? From what the OP said she's working full time. That means she isn't entitled to benefits, housing benefits, council tax benefits, free prescriptions and free dental care."

Whilst I agree with everything else you've said. Working full time does not necessarily mean you can't claim benefits. If she was pregnant or had a child under 1 she could claim free prescriptions and dental care, regardless of her income although this would stop once baby is 1. CT benefit, probably not. Depending on a person's circumstances claiming Universal Credit whilst full time employed is perfectly possible. For example, if I go back to work full time on £27,000 per year in a year's time or whatever after maternity leave, I'm part time but anyway.

My entitlement would be as follows.

Personal allowance - £317.82
Housing element - £701.91 (2 bed entitlement for my area)
Child element - £231.67
Childcare element - £646

Total entitlement before deductions - £1897.40

Take home pay - £1812
Work allowance - £198
Total earnings taken into account - £1614
Earnings deducted at 63p/£1
Total deductions for earnings - £1016.82

Final UC award - £880.52

If you take the personal allowance first off of the total deduction of £1016.82 that leaves £699 to still be deducted. So less than my housing allowance award. I would still be getting £2.91 towards my housing costs (minute amount I know, just pointing out it's still technically there) plus child element and child care element. So yes perfectly possible to be earning a reasonable salary full time and receive benefits.

Although just to add, not declaring earnings at all so it can't be deducted properly as it should be above then yes that is fraud and I'm totally all for reporting culprits of such crimes.

If someone is employed and paid properly, HMRC would be notified of earnings and DWP would be informed real time for UC (Not sure about legacy benefits) so it should be deducted automatically. As my part time wages were last month.