My neighbour has clients coming in and out all day

[notahinchersorry]

I've not said anything at all to her she's been working from the start of lockdown, clients in and out all day. She's a hairdresser yesterday I was popping out to the shops two clients turn up and one has the kid with them. She's putting all her work up on her social media I just think it's shocking.

Aibu to think this is just taking the piss?

[quote QuizzlyBear]@Newkitchen123 I'm also self employed and since I set my business up at the end of last year, I'm eligible for £0.

My DH is self employed and earned just over £50k last year, so he's eligible for £0.

We put aside money for outstanding taxes so have 'savings'. This means we're also not eligible for UC.

Trust me, it's easy to fall through the cracks of the government's 'assistance'. We're living off tax money 'savings' which means that unless things turn around bloody quick, our home will be repossessed by October and we'll be in trouble with HMRC when we can't pay our taxes. It's not straightforward.
[/quote]
Yours is a different situation and you have my sympathy.
As the system works you are either eligible or you're not. If you're eligible you get 80% of your averaged profit.
If what you get is not 80% of the profit then someone's figures are not correct.
As for this neighbour, she is not "self employed" she is working on the side!
I'm counting the days until my next hair do! It's been way too long

@GreytExpectations

Only on Mumsnet would trying to earn a living be considered taking the piss

Yet any potential benefit fraud usually results in the posted being told to mind their own business.

I'm not drip feeding I just couldn't understand why she's so desperate. As she was telling me she just got £900 from universal credit loan or something then her benefits every month. And how her OH just got another promotion.

Meh to the hairdresser working, they can reopen soon anyway but are supposed to follow PPE advice

But ... to her telling you she is 'claiming UC as single parent' whilst having OH live with her 'who earns too much'. That's benefit fraud and can be reported. I disagree that it's no-one else's business, it is when it's so openly fraudulent

You should have reported her at the beginning.

Of course you come back to drip feed that she's committing benefit fraud

I was going to say that ^^

I know a hairdresser who made £300 in a day from cutting peoples hair. I also know that shes spent the best part of 3 months struggling. I mean struggling. So, so what if she's trying to support her family even though it's against the "rules". So fucking what? DP was furloughed for a month and we struggled. I can only imagine how hard 3 months with barely any income would be!

She doesn't qualify for any self- employment grants for reasons that I can't remember, but she needs to work and is putting herself at risk in order to feed and house her young child. She's not taking the piss, she's trying to survive.

(Not the OP’s neighbour, but a hairdresser described by a different poster).

I bet I know the ‘reason you can’t remember’. Is it that she never declared her income?

Continuing to work in a profession that brings you into close contact with loads of different people, against the guidelines, is selfish and irresponsible. The defence is always, “but I need to put food on the table” or similar, to try to make selfishness look heroic. Why can’t she claim UC?

As for bravely (according to the PP) ‘putting herself at risk in order to feed and house her young child’: how about the other people she is putting at risk? They clearly don’t matter as much as her desire for money.

This is why we are in the mess we are in

Exactly - there is no defence. Far too many people think they're special and the rules don't apply to them.

It is completely against Government guidance. This is how Covid 19 spreads by people unwittingly being asymptomatic vectors of the disease.
YANBU.
It is an uncomfortable situation to be in to have to report your neighbour however she is not taking the current situation seriously but obviously nor are her clients.

Oh dear, i never know what my neighbours do and dont do.

Yes your right it’s absolutely none of your business.

I love it. At first its just that she's having clients at home. When you don't get the reaction you wanted suddenly she's also a benefits cheat and has been flouting lockdown rules the whole time. Next she'll have a council house and free goat.

Get a hobby stop watching what your neighbors doing can people not make a living she's keeping the roof over her head and food on the table .

@notahinchersorry

I'm not drip feeding I just couldn't understand why she's so desperate. As she was telling me she just got £900 from universal credit loan or something then her benefits every month. And how her OH just got another promotion.

This made me laugh. You drip feed, then say you are not drip feeding and then give another drip feed (the OH's promotion). Just let her get on with it.

@MissBaskinIfYoureNasty baring in mind she has done my hair a few times she's not a stranger to me we can sit and talk for hours. I'm not looking for a reaction I'm just trying to explain the story better. If someone is flouncing to you they've got this and that your going to be a little bit suspicious.

I didn't realise I had to put all the information in the first post

I didn't realise I had to put all the information in the first post

Majority of people who drip feed is because they were not getting the froth they wanted in the first place

This is why we are in the mess we are in

Exactly....if we're hearing about one of them just in here , think of how many thousands will be doing the same thing with people visiting every day so potentially spreading the virus.

Large numbers of self-employed have discovered to their horror that they got 80% of the declared income.

You reporting one person will not make a gnat's fart of a difference
And if everything thinks like this.......

The trouble is that hairdressers have been at the centre of some super spreading events, so it's not just a personal risk decision for her and her clients, they are potentially seeding outbreaks. The rules aren't perfect and that ship has sailed because she will be allowed to do it legally soon, but I don't think what she did is defensible. Understandable, yes, as an individual, but reckless and risky.

Clients in and out all day and not been reported since lockdown began. In and out of other people's houses with an asthmatic child. Benefits fraud on many levels. You just couldn't make this stuff up....

I have asked for this thread to be taken down as a lot of the information I have put here is possibly outing unless she has told lots of other people.

@notahinchersorry

I have asked for this thread to be taken down as a lot of the information I have put here is possibly outing unless she has told lots of other people.

Like your neighbour, it's surely best to bow out before you're caught out, right?

Mind your own business. That is all.