Should I report my cousin's benefit fraud?

[GreatAmberSnake]

Hi everyone - I'm having a bit of a moral dilemma and looking to get everyone's opinions.

My M34 cousin doesn't work, he claims PIP. I'm not that familiar with how it works but he says he's on the highest level available, and there's even talk of him getting given a car. He openly boasts at every opportunity about the extreme exaggerations and outright lies he put on his PIP application, and calls me and other members of the family idiots for working when we could just get our money from PIP like he does.

If they investigated him they would easily find that some of his lies don't add up. I believe he genuinely does have depression and anxiety, but he has no physical issues. He said he put things like his partner needs to dress him in the morning (he split from his partner a couple of years ago), needs to wear velcro shoes as he can't tie laces etc. A home visit would show up some of his lies, and a call to the school (he's a weekend Dad but sometimes picks up/drops off his sons) or the Police (he's been arrested for drug offences a couple of times) would be further proof.

The main thing stopping me from reporting him is his depression. He has attempted suicide on at least one occasion, and I fear that a potential prison sentence for fraud could send him into a spiral. Even if no-one found out it was me, I really don't want that on my conscience.

If he didn't boast all the time I would just ignore it, it's not like it affects me directly, but it just winds me up every time he goes on about. Grrrr!! I do try to minimise contact with him but sometimes it's easier said than done. If he gets this car I think he'll become even more unbearable 😡

Help! What would you do?

Hahaha! I’m the one angry with MH issues, am I? Take a look in the mirror and get some self awareness, love. It might help! 🤣

My family have certainly faced the darkest days. I certainly know what mental health is, that is for sure. The struggles of trying to keep a roof over the head of a loved one & years of trying to keep that person safe.
I now know what is like to be bereft, struggling, after a loved one has taken their own life.
So please stop with your nasty comments. You like a real bully.

You sound like a real bully, tbh.

I do up to 20 AA forms a month for clients. The higher rate is meant to be for people that have day and night time care needs or difficulties but we seem to find the vast majority, especially when 85+ seem to get awarded AA higher rate even if they have barely any night time needs. I do wonder sometimes whether they just think well they'll be along again in a few months time asking for an upgrade and it will cost us money to re-assess the claim so we'll just give higher rate form the word go anyway !

I’m not a bully, you just don’t like it when someone stands up to you being ignorant. I’m not angry at all. I was simply replying. You’re the one who claimed I was angry so I must have mental health problems. Is that not ‘’bullying’’ in your mind? I’ll admit it’s quite annoying to read someone who knows little about how things work spouting their ill informed opinions on here, but I guess that’s just part and parcel of discourse.

If me replying to you is me ‘’sounding like a bully’’ then fine, so be it. You sound like someone unhappy and ignorant with very little self awareness but here we are, we’re not all perfect. Good day.

Are you CA councillor? Thanks

It sounds like you are shouting at me!
I am sorry I am not up to date with the benefit system, sounds like you are though, so instead of getting mad at me, please try to educate me in a nice, pleasant manner.
Sorry I said that about you, I apologise.

But you’ve been educated by a few posters. It takes absolutely ages to get an award so someone with an unpredictable condition like your friend with bipolar wouldn’t just come off it when they felt better. You’ve said your friend used to come off it when they were manic, that’s not ‘’better’’. You tried framing it like some sort of moral action when really they weren’t in their right mind.

When someone is awarded PIP, it is supposed to make their lives easier and more fulfilling and bearable, so even if, after being unwell, someone doesn’t seem like they should have it anymore, that doesn’t necessarily mean they shouldn’t, but more that that money is what’s enabling them to live as close to a normal life as possible.

I swear people think that disabled people should be rocking in a corner unable to do anything for themselves and have no elements of a normal life in order to qualify for PIP. It’s dehumanising. It’s like people want us to be ‘less than’ even more than we are already.

I wouldn't
You can actually get mobility for anxiety.
Because planning a journey is part of it.
Anyway, I know someone who had severe depression and suffered a bout of psychosis, was suicidal etc and couldn't work, couldn't claim benefits because he wouldnt/couldn't keep appointment or write forms etc
Anyway, someone helped him get pip.
Now he looks decent, and seems normal but that's because he's able to pay bills and take taxis etc. He certainly wasn't putting it on.
So, you're not going to help him with money are you, so why not ignore him?

I doubt they put him in prison they just alter the snowing if benefits they pay him. The uk is very soft,

No he does not. That's an outright lie. Absolutely nobody gets asked what they spend their PIP on.

It really isn't, given something like 5% of the whole UK population receives it.
Something that over 3 million people in the UK gets is not difficult to get.

I swear people think that disabled people should be rocking in a corner unable to do anything for themselves and have no elements of a normal life in order to qualify for PIP. It’s dehumanising. It’s like people want us to be ‘less than’ even more than we are already.

Oh, without a doubt. Someone posted a few pages back about how someone they know on PIP is a regular visitor of a holiday resort. As if people with disabilities shouldn't be allowed to go on holiday. Someone else said something about a claimant smiling in pictures. I'm sure many people believe that if you're anything less than quadriplegic you shouldn't be entitled to anything. And even then, some people would want an itemised list of what the money was being spent on.

Another classic that gets trotted out is how people didn't used to have all these problems, they just got on with it like the poster who said no one starved to death. People have always had these problems, but they would have been hidden away in asylums or other institutions. They might have been involuntarily housebound because accessibility wasn't a thing, or hidden away at home because the autistic child making strange noises rocking back and forth would have been disgraced and brought shame to a family. And people literally did starve to death. For many, not being able to work or keep on top of work led to destitution. Force feeding was common in asylums, and if necessary patients would be placed in a straitjacket to facilitate it.

Well that’s good you that can stay on after 20yrs of being fine.
my sister didn’t take a moral high ground, she would ring up the Social & take herself off DLA because she was on such a super high that she “felt cured”in her words- we as a family knew that wasn’t the case! The nurses & SS that used to visit her, would have to do all the forms again, it was bloody stressful as my mum & dad had to help her out financially.
BTW half the posters on here must ignorant as well, because a lot are saying “shop him”. Why don’t you educate them & leave me alone.

Report him. It's fraud. There are some, honest, people who can't get PIP that need it.

What has that got to do with anything? The OP's Cousin maybe losing his PIP, or not, has absolutely no bearing on whether other people will be awarded PIP, or not. And how can anyone confidently assert that it is fraud, when they have no knowledge of the person in question, other than a questionable post, from a poster, who admits that she dislikes her Cousin, and does not even live with him, to know the real ins, and outs of his issues.

I’d report. Why the hell should we all pay tax so he can do that?

I don't agree with him at all but if he has suicidal tendencies I would definitely not report him, just stay away from him

Yes about attendance allowance for a friend, a few have been kind, & sent on some facts.

You realise what you are really saying here is that people with such poor mental health that they have suicidal ideation should not qualify for PIP.

I'd report him but nothing will happen and he'll continue getting away with it.

That's not what I'm saying at all I'm saying unless you can live with the consequences of your actions on your conscience then just ignore her cousins behaviour

I would report him. A fraud team will investigate. If he deserves those benefits he will keep them. If it’s fraud he will lose them and could be prosecuted. He could just be lying to you to ‘impress’. Let him be investigated. He’s stealing from those who need and are entitled to benefits. And, ultimately, from us all if it’s fraud.

As someone who was refused PIP for not being disabled “enough”, I would report him