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?

Here we go again. Corporates generally stay within the law. The rich pay a lot of tax. Benefit dodgers are equally culpable. Soooo bored of this stupid argument. Just educate yourself please

Benefit “dodgers”? Well I’m one. I suggest you research how much tax avoidance there is by huge corporations. Hope that’s boring enough for you.

Well that's not true I started my mental health nurse training in 1993 and they were still in the process of closing down the asylums a lot of the long stay patients were moved to local long stay wards I know this as I worked on one in 2004 ,or other long stay care in the community homes even in the 90,s some patients in acute wards were kept on them far longer than they should have been I worked with a few consultants psychiatrists who imo abused the mental act .

I know a lot about it already. I don’t need to research it. Tax avoidance is a process that individuals and entities can legally, legally I point out, undertake to reduce their tax liabilities. Let me give you some examples of things you might do - save into an ISA, make a pension contribution, undertake work via a Ltd co versus as a sole trader. Totally legitimate. Nothing at all wrong with that. Corporates do the same.

What IS the problem in the country is the entitled work shy who can absolutely work and be economically independent, but choose not to for various reasons. They are no different to the tax evading individuals and corporate entities.

The last one closed in 2010.
My great grandfather died in one in the 80s.
There was a shift to Care in the Community. Those people may no longer be in asylums, but they are too ill to work.... or they are in prison.

@Flipflop223 the tax laws need rewriting to stop tax being dodged. The rich do not pay as much tax as the rest of us do proportionately to the income they get. That is a fact.

Obviously no one is talking about people who are actually very unwell or incapacitated 🙄

Someone with disabilities would have to get a job to start with. Employers say they are disability friendly, when in reality it is little more than a tick box exercise.
Employers will always go for the most reliable people, and someone who has a chronic illness might struggle to meet that criteria as they will need time off for appointments and periods of being too unwell to work.
Also, WFH is not suitable for everyone. A friend of mine with MS (who uses a wheelchair) has has to leave her WFH job and go on benefits as she can no longer see her computer screen properly.

Ok if you want to have this argument - who are you defining as the ‘rich’. How much money do they have to have to fall into this category? Are you defining it on income or wealth (net assets)?

I don’t think you have any data on this at all but I’m interested to see what you come up with to support this assertion

You said there should be no PIP for people with MH issues. So what are they meant to live on? Fresh air?

I didn’t say that actually

The UC most of them will be claiming?

Mental health is not mental conditions - mental health might be comorbid but it’s not generally the reason that people were institutionalised.

My apologies. That was someone else.

UC is not much. And if you happen to live with someone who earns too much or even has too much in savings, you will get nothing.
I know many women with MH issues who are not entitled to UC, so their sole income is their PIP. Take that away and they are 100% dependant on their partner/spouse. That is can be very dangerous in some cases.

Funnily enough, the mass asylum closures coincided with a sharp rise in the percentage of working-age people claiming incapacity benefits.

People just had to get up and work in the past. No work, no food. They didn’t get to say they can’t work because they are dealing with trauma.

Are you sure @Flipflop223?

I’m sure. There’s been a wholesale change in attitudes to work (a bit like to attending school) where it’s now become seen as optional. If you didn’t work historically, it was off to the poor house you go and no one wanted to go there. Now we’re too anxious to work which I think is utterly ridiculous

We can’t mitigate against every single situation a person might find themselves in. If they’ve become dependant on their spouse, it’s time for them to un-dependant themselves. We need to solve our own problems as adults rather than expecting the state to endlessly parent us. PIP should not be given for mental health problems and especially not to high earners or anyone claiming universal credit. Thankfully it seems to be heading that way.

That's not what the data says. A higher percentage of the population were claiming sickness benefits in 1995 than in 2024.

I just saw your chart. Are you fielding this in support of your argument? Because the data I’m looking at is (when I was a child between 3-4% of the working population was claiming benefits) and that has shot up to 8% at present and forecast to rise to 9%.

That entirely supports my argument.

Is it really the case that with all the modern advances in healthcare and rises in living standards overall that nearly 10% of us are unable to work due to illness or incapacity? Or is there an attitudinal change that we’re too anxious to work, or too sad or whatever - work is seen as optional now and people think why would I work when I can just get benefits.

Incidentally i do also wonder why people don’t have their income protection insurance so they don’t have to milk the state.

OK, a vulnerable woman with MH problems lives with her spouse who has average earnings, but more than £16k in savings. Because of this, she can't claim UC, but she claims PIP. Take the PIP from her, and she is 100% reliant on her spouse... who happens to be not the nicest person around. She can't escape him as she can't afford to even get a bus into town.

PIP is not means tested, and it is vital it stays so, so vulnerable and disabled people can be independent... the clue is in the name already.

I knew a lovely lady from one of my therapy groups who was on the highest rate of PIP for both elements. She was anorexic. Could barely walk, was not allowed to be on her own during meals and after. Had to be supervised all the time anyway to make sure she did not try and exercise to burn off the small amount of calories she consumed. She was not lying or faking any of this like some people on here seem to think people with MH issues do. You can't fake looking like a skeleton. I saw a comment on here saying that someone with anorexia should not be entitled to PIP as they wont have food costs.
Anyway, it killed her in the end... at just 23 years old.

I do find i incredibly sad that you want to see some of the most vulnerable in society be made to suffer more.

I’m so sorry for the loss of your friend. Such a tragic story.

I just wonder, do these people have no concern about the karma they may be inviting upon themselves with all this rubbish they’ve been spouting. Mental illness can happen at any point in life.

100 per cent correct in fact my husband paid more tax last year than Google. Work that one out @Flipflop223

That’s exactly what they want to do.

Just take responsibility for your own financial situation and put in place some insurance for yourself. Is what everyone else has to do!