Oh FFS. Reporting benefit fraud does NOT mean someone hates it looks down on benefit claimants. It doesn't mean someone agrees with the food banks, sanctions and utterly stupid red tape and inefficiency surrounding benefits. It just means that someone believes in the basic principle that people who steal, should face consequences.
Corporations and Gary Barlow are the same and just because they get away with not paying so much tax as they should, does not make it OK for someone else to swindle the system. Two wrongs don't make a right.
I actually find the comments on threads Likr this laughable. You get everyone jumping on, bleating on about the government, and how it's OK to commit henefit fraud. Any other form of stealing and you'd be vilified - I've seen threads on here where toddlers have slipped a pack of sweets in the bag while shopping and mums been told off for not watching properly! Yet benefit fraud - the person who's potentially doing the fraud is innocent and the person reporting is always vindictive, jealous, mean spirited and lacking empathy.
There's been fraud investigators on here telling people that payments aren't suspended willy nilly. Yet no one listens.
And I'm sorry but blaming the OP for the children's struggle if mums benefits get stopped?! If they get stopped, as posters who know have said, it will be a carefully considered decision. If as a result mum struggles to feed the kids - well that is terrible for the kids and I have every sympathy for them - but it's not the systems fault or the ops fault. It is the fault of their parent who committed fraud without thinking of the consequences. People need to take responsibility for their actions.
Honestly, get a grip. The attitudes in this thread are so unlike rl.
Oh and I do have empathy. Yesterday I phoned a claimant (simple query) and got a mouthful of abuse and swearing. He ranted about his dla being stopped and hung up on me. Rather than just say 'his problem' as I'd have been perfectly entitled to, I looked into his case, found out what was going on, and that he'd been unsuspended and when his next payment was. I rang back and left s message with his support worker. That took 20mins of my time with no reflection on my work completed. I didn't have to do that, especially after the way he was on the phone. Yet I did.
Because even though the government is a bit Shit, the people who work within it (at least the ones I know), the 'little people' - not the higher ups - actually do care about people. We don't want to sanction people for no reason, we're not heartless. We do the best we can in a shit system
And damn right that fraudsters make things harder - colleagues (ones who've worked here longer, not on my team) are a bit more cynical. Because they've had 20years of seeing fraudsters and that would affect most people's attitudes. Fraudsters make things difficult for genuine claimants, Eben if it's just attitudes