House deposit saved up while cheating benefits

[PaulinesPenStash]

Firstly I want to say I am as left wing as they come, a card carrying member of the Labour Party, and i am in full favour of benefits for everyone that needs them.

But this is an absolute piss take ...🤦🏻‍♀️ I have just found out that someone I am close to, her partner (and father of her children) has been claiming to live at his mums for about 5 years. he's been working the whole time while living with her rent free and living off her income, and a bit of his. They've saved up enough for a house deposit as he's saved most of his earnings and they've just had an offer accepted on a house

I don't want to go in to how I know in case it's in any way outing, because let me be clear I would not want to grass the person up despite how disgusting i find it

I am just very shocked and really want to tell someone but I can't so I'm posting it on here to kind of get it off my chest

The deposit amount is £50,000 btw 🤦🏻‍♀️

(The one positive is it will free up a council house !)

You won't get good responses on here OP.

On MN any mention of benefit fraud is met with 'It doesn't happen' or 'Keep your nose out'
It's just one of those MN things.

Oh I know

I have been on here years, I'm just really shocked 😨

It's completely true though honestly

YANBU

But the bleeding hearts in here will disagree. Apparently money trees DO exist!

Well as they've used the fraud to get out of a council house and into their own they are doing many people a favour tbh. There are so so many people who do this with no intention of leaving their subsidised house while living very nice lifestyles on the 'non resident' partners income plus benefits.

Why wouldn't you report it? If someone raided your bank account, you'd report them. If someone emptied a till in a shop and you saw, you'd report them. You know they've stolen £50,000 so report them. Ignore the mumsnet line of "it's none of your business". It's everyone's business. Report them

Well that's one in the eye if all those people who say council house rents are too cheap.
If they saved every penny of their hb for 5 years and it came to 50 grand, that makes their rent £833 a month.
Uh-huh

YABU not to report them. It’s not ‘grassing them up’, this isn’t school.

Yes, but has the mortgage been approved yet? Their bank statements will be checked and banks do look for this type of fraud.

I think they may get a shock.
They might "own", a house, but they'll have a mortgage to pay, have to be an official couple now and if something breaks they'll have to pay for it, as opposed to calling the HA.
Home ownership on a low income isn't necessarily that great.

It's more than £50000 @TheInvestigator

Including housing benefit, tax credits and income support that's about £1000 a month, and that's a conservative estimate based on what I got as a single mum a few years ago with just the 2 dc, this couple have 3

£1000 a month for 5 years is more like 60k

What goes around comes around.

Report them

I thought that @IHaveBrilloHair

Imagine going from pretty much no outgoings to a few hundred a month mortgage plus buildings and contents, life insurance and all the other bills

May go against the rain, of mumsnet but I’d definitely report them. That’s a theft from every single one of us living and paying tax here.

Only on mumsnet is defrauding tax payers for tens of thousands absolutely fine and none of your business, but if you accidentally don’t pay for a can of beans in Tesco you have to take it back to the store 20 miles away otherwise you are a horrible thieving scumbag!!

*grain

It's completely true though honestly

Oh I believe you. When I lived somewhere a few years ago there were so many people fraudulently claiming for one thing or another, it was the norm not the exception. They would openly discuss it and what to put on forms/say if interviewed. It was a lifestyle choice that went down generations in some cases... But if you say that on here you must be lying because it doesn't happen [eyeroll]

YABU to not report it.

@LoveIsHope

They've had an agreement in principle ... I suppose as long as the guy is listed at his mums for the last few years and has had a regular income and decent credit they'll be fine

I honestly don't know if it's in both names though, for all I know it could just be in his name then she'll give up her council house and "move in with him" once he's in the new house

Not seen a single post here telling you to mind your own business 🤷‍♀️

If you think they have defrauded the system then report them, but maybe there are things your friend didn't discuss with you. As to what would happen, I do know the responsible people where the law is concerned are the ones who actually signed, so both of them if they both signed declarations.

Report them. Why wouldn't you? If they've done nothing wrong then they'll be fine

@PaulinesPenStash
Exactly.
I live in an HA home, fully reliant on (disability) benefits and sudden having my own home and the same or less income is terrifying and not something I'd want.
My electric went funny on Christmas Eve a couple of years back, fixed in two hours, no extra charge, ditto when my toilet suddenly needed a new flush mechanism, or when my outside pipe started leaking.
I would envy them at all.

Scuse typos, hopefully you can work out what I'm saying!

I am probably going to get villified here,but surely the fact that they have saved enough for their own home, is in the long term freeing up a council house for those who need one?.Yes he may have been economical with the truth. But he hasnt got 10 girls pregnant ,or run a drug racket!.I dont condone his actions BTW, but with house prices so expensive people resort to desperate measures!.