Reporting historic benefit fraud…

[Poofet]

I lived with my friend, her partner and their small child. I started living with them 15 years ago, and lived there for 9 years. I moved out 6 years ago.

To cut a long story short, my friend and I have fallen out due to some pretty poor behaviour over the years on her part. We have had a very on and off again friendship for years. This morning during an argument, she was sending me abusive text messages, and within one I received this morning she has said, ‘You didn’t pay enough rent when you lived with us, so I had to claim as a single mother to support myself through benefits.’

Obviously, this is absurd. I am now worried that I could be implicated in benefit fraud if I do not report it and it somehow gets discovered, I could be considered to have been part of this. Do the DWP / police even care about historic benefit fraud? Is this something I should be reporting to protect myself?

This is exactly my worry.

two reasons. If she gets found out will the defence that she had to do it because of me not paying her enough, can that be used against me (I really doubt it). The main reason, can she say I was somehow involved in it. Because if she was doing it the whole 9 years, which she’s implied, that’s thousands of pounds and she’d get in a lot of trouble. And even if she can’t prove I knew at the time (I definitely didn’t) could she say she told me after the fact and I didn’t report it and then I’m in trouble for knowing about her crime and not reporting it. That’s my concern.

Yes, you're right, OP.
You're headed for jail.

It’s not about prison I know that’s unlikely, its about being investigated by the police or having police at my door or cautions, I work in a field where I cannot have any involvement with the police or I’d be immediately dismissed so it’s a worry

You didn’t sign any forms or gain financially. It’s her claim and her responsibility, you didn’t even know what she was claiming so how could you possibly be implicated.

It would be pretty difficult to prove who was living at a property six years ago regardless just on your say so, so even if you do fancy reporting her it’s doubtful to go anywhere anyway. Move on would be my advice.

Thank you

She gave you somewhere to live for nine years until you could afford to get somewhere on your own. Maybe you could have gone somewhere else and passed credit checks/deposits/the 'do I like you enough to have you in my house for an indefinite period?' check for a lodger for exactly the same money (although I doubt it or you'd have gone there instead), maybe not. Maybe you left exactly when she was ready for you to go or perhaps you outstayed your welcome by several years, maybe not.

In any case, there's absolutely nothing you could get into trouble for - although it could be quite embarrassing to have somebody turning up wanting to get a statement from you if you reported her for fraud and they then chose to take your report seriously and investigate this historical allegation - just like when abusive partners or exes report their ex girlfriend for fraud when they've refused to pay their way or leave, they have nothing to worry about, it's just the woman with the children who gets her income stopped and the criminal prosecution, never the person who committed the financial abuse.

So you can sleep easy without any need to poke a hornet's nest. Just block her and everything is sorted.

Agreed.

I only came on here to ask if the DWP would care about historical benefit fraud if it ever came to light or if I could somehow be implicated in it.

I don’t care one jot about reporting her but I will do if there’s any chance I could get in trouble, which doesn’t seem likely from the answers on this thread.

tbh I am shocked at the amount of people having a go at me for reporting her (even though I’ve said I’m probably NOT tons of times) and not lambasting a literal criminal who has stolen thousands off the tax payer and is now trying to get me involved it in