To ask if you would report benefit fraud?

[namechanged102]

Name changed.

Me and DP have a friend who recently reconciled with his ex. She was a single parent who hasn't worked because she had her first DC young.

Said friend does earn and has moved in with her, however she is still claiming as a single parent and pretty much everything is paid for - rent, council tax reduction etc.

They seem to be living such a comfortable lifestyle, they recently got a new car and have had numerous staycations. I feel like it isn't any of my business what they get up to, but me and DH work full time and still can't afford anywhere near the lifestyle that they lead. It just seems a bit shit.

AIBU?

These threads all 11 million of them nearly always boil down to jealousy parading as 'wanting to do the right thing'

I don't think it's jealousy at all, I think it's people being pissed off by seeing some people benefit by being dishonest.

If I saw someone steal a chocolate bar from a shop, I'd not be jealous because I didn't have a chocolate bar, I'd be fucking annoyed because they've stolen it, and ultimately someone, the shop owner, will have to pay for it. If every week he has a number of chocolate bars stolen, eventually he'll put the price of the chocolate up, so me, who's honest and pays for them will also end up paying more, whilst 'whoever' is sat round the corner enjoying the chocolate bar she's stolen. That's not jealousy

The entire welfare bill, fraudulent or genuine, is only a fraction of the bill of unpaid corporation tax from companies we all use daily

So because a company doesn't pay corporation tax, that justify's people to defraud the benefit system?

No I wouldn't.

I think the right thing to do is definitely to report.

Not sure I actually would, I would be worried about their life spiralling negatively and feeling the cause of it. But I would secretly hope someone else reported it!

@AndAnotherUsername

I think the right thing to do is definitely to report.

Not sure I actually would, I would be worried about their life spiralling negatively and feeling the cause of it. But I would secretly hope someone else reported it!

Why would it be right to do something that you suspect may make someone else’s life spiral negatively?

@MsWonderful because they’re living the life of Riley on stolen cash by the sounds of it

It’s theft. She’s also stealing funds from all those people who need it. It’s stealing from all the actual hard working people who are paying their taxes

@AdoreTheBeach

It’s theft. She’s also stealing funds from all those people who need it. It’s stealing from all the actual hard working people who are paying their taxes

The people who need funds, out of the £10 billion unclaimed benefits per year, are the ones who are daily refused benefits like PIP despite having brain injuries, severe arthritis, profound learning difficulties or organ failure, but who don't have the ability or capacity to write the 5,000 word dissertations and pay for acquire the medical reports that the DWP actually requires.

The system is skewed against claimants in the first place.

Why would it be right to do something that you suspect may make someone else’s life spiral negatively?

Because by allowing people to steal, you are letting them steal from other people who really need those benefits, and making their lives spiral negatively. You’re letting them steal from the most vulnerable in society- children at school (don’t complain that there are huge classes, no pencils and no trips), ill people who need doctors and hospitals (don’t complain that there are no appointments or you can’t get that crucial scan), older people who need social care -(don’t complain that your gran with dementia has no carers) - all of their lives are negatively affected because you’ve let people steal from the communal pot.

I would report it. It's theft. I'd have a heavy heart about it, but what they are doing isn't fair. The welfare state is there to help people who truly need it. It isn't free money for those cheeky enough to claim what they are not entitled to.

In weighing up whether to live together, they should have factored in the true cost like honest people do.

Why is it hard, then, for genuine claimants to successfully claim benefits?

It isn't usually jealousy - it is about being fair, about playing by the rules. If it is ok for them not to play fair then why should anyone? You feel like a mug. Society cannot work like that.

If people don't pay their tax, and fraudulantly claim benefits and jump the queue and lie about school admissions and shoplift and scam others etc etc then nothing will work, (and people will blame "The Government". )

No-one wants to be the mug who does stand in the fucking queue and pay all the taxes due when they see the smarter types doing it the easy way. And once people realise that - society falls apart.

No you should definitely not report her. It's really none of your business. Just get on with your life.

Yup. Benefit fraud is theft and there's little enough in the pot as there is.

Let’s not blame the poor for that. The reason there isn’t much in the pot is because the rich are hoarding all the wealth.

they should have factored in the true cost like honest people do.

We are all expected to be honest by the government. But often the same rules don’t apply to them. If only the government and the super rich played by the same rules. Reporting someone for benefit fraud is playing right into their hands.

Yup. Benefit fraud is theft and there's little enough in the pot as there is.

Exactly. And they aren't stealing from the government - they are stealing from US.

Fraud isn’t the same thing as theft.

@tarasharp

Yup. Benefit fraud is theft and there's little enough in the pot as there is.

Let’s not blame the poor for that. The reason there isn’t much in the pot is because the rich are hoarding all the wealth.

Isn't the above post jealousy too?

If I knew it was definitely happening - I didn’t just suspect it - then yes I would.
Fraud means less in the pot for those who genuinely need it.
And I just don’t believe those people who say it’s only a very small percentage of cases, so why bother?

By definition the only cases known about are those that have been proved - usually after extensive investigation - and given that so many people are reluctant to shop anyone, I suspect that they’re more like the tip of the iceberg.

Jealousy that the rich are hoarding the wealth whilst the poor are continuously getting screwed over, can barely afford housing , many relying on food banks, the joke that is Universal Credit that people have to rely on and are actually losing their homes because of it? Meanwhile all the wealth is going straight to the super rich. What a strange thought, that people who are angered by the injustice of it all are jealous. I mean, is that we call it now?

That was to Draiggoch

Fraud means less in the pot for those who genuinely need it.

That isn’t true.

I have been so, so close to reporting someone in the past but I had a feeling that they would have worked out it was me, so I didn't. And yes, it was because I was jealous.

I think it is wrong to claim benefits you're not entitled to, but at the same time you don't know the absolute situation they're in, you're just looking from the outside through rose-tinted glasses. You don't know how they're affording their car or anything else. Most people COULD have a nice car and lots of other things, but by getting themselves in debt up to their eyeballs to achieve it.

My partner and I decided long ago that we wouldn't be doing that.

If it makes you feel better, talk to her about it, and about how she should declare who's living with her. Don't just report her without giving her a chance to put things right, as I don't think that's very fair at all.

So everyone who says don’t report, must be ok with stealing then? good to know.

Probably more a question of having different definitions/priorities.

As @JamieLeeCurtains alluded to, if all the people who are entitled to state assistance actually claimed it/were correctly awarded it just within the scope set out by legislation we'd be paying out far more than we do now. A bit of skimming in the face of that huge saving has little effect. And like fuck would more spending be allocated to benefits if people weren't frauding. Jobseekers has been frozen for twelve years, while the number claiming it has been up, down, all around the houses and there's been no change in the rate awarded.