Sister committing benefit fraud

[ellie09]

I have a sister who has been with a guy now for a year. The relationship progressed quickly and he was moved in within weeks. She had a 3 year old from a previous relationship and became pregnant within 3 months and just gave birth.

He is living with them permanently and had a full time, stable job making around 30k a year.

My issue is that she is still claiming benefits as a single parent.

I work full time on 35k a year with a child on my own, having to pay full childcare and other things while my tax money is finding their living.

They don't live outrageously, but they have a much better standard of living than me. She's bragging that he is saving most of his wages in his savings. They live in a housing executive flat which is fully paid for with her benefit so he isn't paying any rent etc.

The two of them plead poverty, constantly asking me or my mum for a lend of money etc yet neither of them drive and he works from home.

I honestly wish they would get reported, and at times as a tax payer, feel like doing it myself.

AIBU?

Where does the money come from then? There’s not some giant money tree at Westminster, as shocking as that might be

Your sister makes shit decisions. You don’t need to report her, she will dig her own grave in the end.

I know its technically wrong but please don't do that to your sister, think about her kids
she will get caught eventually,
DWP do actually notice when women have children and they do question where the father is , and do their little investigations ,I know because it happened to me!

I was young and we were in an on/off relationship, he was not contributing to my bills or even groceries and he was only staying a few nights a week on the sofa! we weren't even having sex ffs

but they still classified that as cohabiting and I got in trouble, they just deducted his earnings from the previous entitlements and I had to pay some of it back
and they forced us to have a joint claim , despite us not being together

I could have challenged it but I just wanted it to be over with, it was so unfair because my ex wouldn't even buy nappies but yh..
please don't insert yourself into their mess

Good grief. It must be exhausting living your life thinking like this.

How many of you saying report would do it if you were going to find yourself on the street?

I'll tell you now I wouldn't report anything living on a council estate in Northern Ireland. You keep your head down and your nose clean.

My best friend works for the DWP.

Benefit fraud accounts for 1.2% of the welfare budget. More - 4% - is lost in DWP errors. Those figures are from gov.uk.

If caught, both will be prosecuted.

The chances of them being caught at the moment are extremely slim - my friend says virtually no fraud investigations are being done unless someone reports.

I agree .I would never report my sister ,what kind of person would ?

This is only a figure of those that are caught , how do you know the total figure if those people are not reported ? It could be much higher ?

It sounds like she is being financially abused.

He is living off her single parent benefits while pocketing his entire wage into his own savings?

He is accumulating savings while she assumes the risks. What is in it for her if all the excess is going into an account of a man she isn't married to and has no claim on?

I'd talk to my sister about how precarious her situation is.

I wouldn't report, if only for the sake of the children in the situation.

Sounds like she’s being financially abused…probably why she has to ask for money as he’s keeping all his money.

As a civil servant, I’d have to say report her. It’s a shit situation but ultimately the DWP have an entire fraud department deducted to this; living with a partner is the most common case of fraud. She will eventually get caught and the longer this goes on, the likely worse the consequences will be. It’s hardly crime of the century and the DWP has repayment plans that could be super low so it’s not necessarily going to ruin her to repay this. I’m sure she’ll be fuming about the money she is not entitled to claim but there really is no such thing as free money and it’s better to have to repay £1k vs £10k

^ This.

He sounds like a keeper!

It sounds like your sister has issues.

Is be more concerned about that and your niece/nephew than any benefits fraud.

Oh my God, leave her alone. This is your sister and her kids - he may not be reliable or safe.

I truly cannot believe people sometimes.

No, I doubt most people would say the same about 'Billy down the street' ... And that's precisely point they're making - you don't report your own SISTER for something like this.

You'd have to be a real lowlife to put your own family through that.

@Ilovetea42
It's must be bloody exhausting being taking for a mug,
by someone milking the system, like a dairy warehouse factory farm .!

If you want to screw your sister over that's your call. Clearly she needs to learn the hard way not to trust you with her private information. On 35k you should still be entitled to some benefits have you done an online calculator? Also you can get tax relief on child care saving you 20%. And if your child is 3 they would be entitled to 30 funded hours.

Look at a pie chart of government expenditure. It’s shocking. The vast majority goes on welfare. And I would guess that at least a third, if not half, of those receiving the money don’t need or deserve it.

Doesn't the majority go on pensions?

Also I thought 35k did make someone a net contributor?

Advise your sister to come clean and to change her status with authorities or she could be pinged and have to pay back.
Don't report her but talk reality.
Never lend her money while she is being dishonest.

I think you need to mind your own business, it's no concern of yours, focus on your life and your money not hers!

He moved in within weeks, by 3 months she was pregnant.
He has your sister paying for everything via her benefits whilst he builds his savings.
He has a nice lump sum and she takes the risk of fraudulently claiming benefits.

My concern would be this isn't a healthy relationship at all and she needs to wake up.

I would be worried about this than the claiming ! Guessing it's why she us asking to borrow money as hers is all gone.

Claiming benefits as a lone parent has nothing to do with adding a partner's name to the tenancy. She probably wouldn't be able to do that if she wanted to but she should still be declaring that he lives there.

the Vast majority of the welfare bill is spent on pensions because rightly or wrongly that is the pot of money it comes out of.

everyone claims that they know a ton of people fiddling the system, but despite how many people are willing to report it, funnily enough the actual assessed levels of fraud especially on things like disability benefits are very low.

given the amount of hoops disabled people go through again it comes down to people looking from the outside in making assumptions without genuinely understanding someone’s life.

But again given the number of reports and the lack of prosecutions, I very much doubt the evidence some of the people doing the reporting actually exists.

I also despise when people feel the need to mention cancer like this is the magic word that wins every argument. Cancer had vast sums of money spent on it, vast, and 3/4 of that money goes to multi billion corporations who take public ally funded research and patent it. Creating treatments with limited efficacy that cost obscene amounts of money. It’s a massive massive scam designed to funnel money from the NI pot to private organisations. The sums are so casts that the odd sister living with a boyfriend is actually immaterial

maybe if more money was spent on researching things like chronic fatigue, pain relief, and kinder mental health treatments more people would be in work?