Benefit Fraud and Drug Driving

[MrsDoylesMoles]

Name changed for this.

It's a long one so please bear with me.

My husband has an employee who has worked for him for years. We are close to him and his wife and by extension know their family quite well. Their son has a girlfriend (we'll call her Jane) and they have a DC the same age as our youngest DC. With children the same age Jane has become an acquaintance. We attend some of the same toddler groups etc.

Over the course of the last year two things have become clear. She is fraudulently claiming benefits and is smoking weed regularly, in the same way a smoker would smoke a regular cigarette.

Jane claims full benefits as she gave up work after having DC. Her boyfriend has all his mail delivered to his parents home and she claims she lives alone with DC. He works full time on an adequate income (around £30,000) and lives with Jane and their DC as a family in a council property. Jane also does a few shifts each week cash in hand.

Yesterday she popped round so DCs could play together and not only rolled and smoked a joint in my garden she then got in her car and drove home with DC. Safe to say she won't be coming round again.

Am I being unreasonable to be extremely annoyed by this woman and to hope she gets caught out?

Drink driving and drug driving should be zero tolerance. It's just disgusting behaviour and endangers her DC and any others using the roads when she is.

The benefits system should not be being abused in this way. I am a SAHM to 3 young DC and my husband is a higher rate tax payer. I gave up work to stay home and we made changes to our lifestyle to accommodate that. Why should some people get away with getting the best of both worlds by cheating the system. A system that is hard enough for genuine claimants to get proper support.

I've been stewing so need some perspective.

Except this is clearly made up.

Sounds like jealousy IF she is.
Stop pearl clutching..why change your name btw

Why do people think it’s made up?

I'm a "genuine" claimant (whatever that is) with a full time job and honestly it's laughable when someone who has to mention that their HUSBAND is a higher rate tax payer to try and lord it over the lesser beings who have to claim. Not even them, their husband.

IF someone is committing fraud or a crime just report it. You could report yourself for having drugs on your property while you're at it.

It reads like a benefits bashing bingo card though

If it isnt...its still none of her business. If she was that offended by drug smoking at hers, tell her not to! ... Its all sketchy...

How is it benefit bashing if OP has evidence that this girl is cheating the system ? And how do you figure that OP knows nothing about the benefits system given that she has the rules bang on ? If you’re claiming benefits as a single parent and living in council property having your rent paid, you are supposed to declare any other person living there who is contributing to the household. It’s common behaviour for live in partners to have their mail delivered elsewhere to avoid detection.

Personally I wouldn’t touch this with a barge pole - what this girl does is her own business and nothing to do with OP. But she’s not wrong.

OP what are "full benefits"?

She isn’t the only ‘single ‘ mother doing exactly this. Schools are often provided with two addresses. The dad nearly always lives with ‘his mother’. The parents are very much together and the children all claim fsm. It’s a huge problem and one of the reasons so many young couples just don’t get married. It benefits them to ply the system and the system allows them to do it.
Report it if you feel the need but I wouldn’t waste my energy dwelling on it. The children will grow up and she’ll be fucked.

Because it's full of stereotypes, there have conveniently been numerous posts like this over the past few weeks when the Tories are about to be usurped, and ALSO people who are genuinely committing benefit fraud do not go round telling all and sundry about it. A remarkable number of mumsnetters seem to have people who are keen to tell them they are breaking the law!

Because all the threads are the same.

If someone genuinely thought there was fraud it is simple to report it.

Yes, what does OP get? There will be make up money, which is benefits..so shes on benefits?.. probably angry she doesn't get as much.

Make up money? What is that?

What evidence??

Don't be gullible, you've seen no evidence.

It's glaringly obvious that it is a made up post. And the only evidence you could have that someone is cheating the system is if you had copies of their bank statements and saw their UC claim, anything else is just hearsay.

Yes! I despise these benefit bashing posts...disguised as something else..eg what about those 'genuine' claimants 🙄

Housing paid for, fsm, uniform allowance, dental and prescriptions, health vouchers for the supermarkets , reduced internet costs, food vouchers during school holidays, children top of the list for childcare places as children are seen as being disadvantaged while working parents have to pay. I’m sure there’s more.

ALSO people who are genuinely committing benefit fraud do not go round telling all and sundry about it. A remarkable number of mumsnetters seem to have people who are keen to tell them they are breaking the law!

Yes exactly! This woman I barely know has told me she's been committing a serious crime for years...

Come on people, think it through, you're being taken for a fool if you believe people are broadcasting their crimes.

Im out of here, angers me.

Aye if you say so.

You can't claim any of that unless you have a household income of less than £6k a year, and single parents are required to work 30 hours per week at minimum wage once their children are 3 years old, so anyone who is getting those things will have a genuine reason that they can't work such as a disability.

The disability is usually depression or anxiety? Easiest one in the world to fake. If they can get a diagnosis for just one of their children then they’re set for the next 10-15 years. Do you honestly not believe these people exist? Ask any school secretary about the number of ‘couples ‘ with separate addresses provided to the school. Granted the numbers will be higher in some areas than others. People are only surviving. Tbh I don’t care if they take the government for a ride but don’t pretend it doesn’t happen.

And how on earth would a school secretary know if a couple were living together or not? Do they make a habit of spying on people when they aren't at work?

Just report them then.

Drug driving is zero tolerance, it'll be an automatic ban if she's caught (unlike alcohol, where you can have alcohol in your system but be under the limit)