Reported possible benefit fraud

[snitchapparently]

I suspect someone of claiming carers allowance fraudulently, and after bottling out several times, I just submitted a report. It’s likely to get back to me if something comes of this and I feel like the bad guy for doing it. Am I the bad guy?! Should I just not have said anything?!

To claim you need to be providing 35 hours a week of care and also earn under a certain threshold and I’m fairly sure this person meets neither of those criteria. (If I’m wrong, of course, there will be no ill effect to the claim).

Feel quite stressed.

And how many such people are there? What is the amount being claimed which shouldn't?

Do you read the Daily Bile, by any chance?

Maybe you should've asked first, it's too late now for remorse, you've did the damage reporting them. Attendance allowance isn't 'easy' to get either!

You can’t claim it fraudulently as it’s based on DLA / PIP entitlement.

I am normally fine with reporting benefit fraud but in this case it’s a bit gross.

There’s over £1.35 BILLION of benefit fraud. Every little adds up and serves as a deterrent.

There is over £2billion of unclaimed benefits. I'll leave it to you to get a friend to explain it to you.

Unless it actually happens to be your job, it's not your business to be thinking it.

If you post any more facts in this thread I will have to report you.

You know the rules.

I'm quite glad the OP is getting their arse handed to them on a plate for this, I expected the opposite given how fond some Mumsnetters are on reporting stuff.

It’s not that I’m doubting, it’s more the societal judgement (as shown here) that made me feel “guilty”, even though I’ve not actually done anything wrong, I’ve followed what’s requested of me.

In this instance, it’s very easy to check if they are earning a full time wage, and if that’s the case, it’s right the benefit is stopped, surely?

The 35 hours include shopping, paying bills, laundry which may be done in your own home or even online ordering groceries, collecting prescriptions and also caring for another person as a carer. But you are only paid once even if you have two carees or you may even go into hospital yourself for 12 weeks. You don't need to do 35 hours with that person face-to-face in person. If they are bringing food and cooking it at home that counts, doing their ironing in their own home. If they go your own home you are entitled to time to prepare and clean up after them. You might do 35 hours in two days and sleep over

OP you did the right thing. Better to have it checked out.

No idea why so many think benefit cheats need not be reported.

You are a good person. No need for you to worry, if loads of people know, then there will be many suspects. If you get questioned … listen carefully & deny.

It does briefly warm the cockles. However this entire thread will be fed into an "AI" engine somewhere to train it to develop nastier and more dog-whistlely posting styles.

I do know a person who claimed it and started a job that they did not declare.

They were caught eventually and it stopped and they had to pay it all back.

I'm a full time carer for my dh. The caring doesn't just stop at 5pm, it's a 24 hour job. How can you possibly know how much caring this person does in the evenings and weekends? I know this government is encouraging bashing of disability benefits claimants at the moment but if they, and the public, now turn on carers, there will be a lot of us who might just throw in the towel.
If I stick my dh in a council funded nursing home, which will be the only alternative if I say I can't care for him anymore, then it will cost the government a damn site more than my measly carers allowance. You ought to be ashamed of yourself!

No, it isn’t. The person being cared for has to be receiving a certain benefit, PIP/DLA are two of many - all of which are varying degrees of difficulty to get. Included is AA which is incredibly easy to get.

The carer is the one claiming, and they must spend 35 hours or more caring during a week and earn below a certain threshold. Historically systems were not linked and many people claim this fraudulently while earning above the threshold.

There are 168 hours in a week - so perfectly possible to be spending at least another 35 hours in caring duties, on top of working full time Family Carers don't just care for someone Mon to Friday 9am - 5pm.

You may be right though about how much they are earning from that job, being too much to allow them to qualify. Someone I used to work beside was carer for an elderly parent, so had to be careful about how many hours she worked or she would lose the allowance.

If you were sure that they are actually in receipt of carer's allowance AND earning too much money, to claim it, then fair enough - but from what you have said you actually aren't sure about anything in terms of what this person gets/does etc, so on that basis, I think you were being unreasonable

AA isn't incredibly easy to get

Threads like this invariably involve a name change too. It isn't hard to work out why.

What?

There are 168 hours in a week - so perfectly possible to be spending at least another 35 hours in caring duties, on top of working full time

I had a colleague who could only work from home as they were the only caregiver for their wife. Basically they had to be available 24/7 and fitted their work around that.

Are you interested OP in the fact that I tried to stop claiming carers allowance over a month ago because whilst I still care full time I have found a job that I can wrap around caring and I'm not eligible for universal credit.

I contacted the DWP using the online form and, low and behold, they've still paid it this month even though I've asked them not to.

Perhaps making it easier to stop benefits could be a better angle for the DWP / government to take? I'm perfectly aware that I will now need to pay this back at some point, what a palaver.

It…. really is. It’s completely unassessed. If you say the right thing, you’ll receive it unchallenged. And it’s not a particularly high bar. Most elderly folk could probably get this.

You clearly know nothing about carers allowance or caring. That 35 hours a week can be anything from physcally caring to admin, paying bills, picking up shopping, making appointments etc. If they are working full time in a legit job they wont be getting any money, but they will get the "title" of carer which can help the person being cared for.

I know because when I earned over the threshold I didnt receive any payments but still had an active claim.

Yes you are an interfering busybody. Your time would be better spent campaigning against all the tax avoidance from big companies than victimising someone it sounds like you know very little about!

That’s not good, poor management of admin.

Included is AA which is incredibly easy to get.

Um - no it isn't actually. Claim form is miles long, most people don't understand how to fill it out and many get knocked back , because they try to minimise the difficulties/make adaptations - as an example: They may say they don't have any difficulties dressing themselves, when in fact, they buy things without buttons or zips because they can't handle buttons or zips, use pull on things, cardigans instead of jumpers. All sorts of things

The OP clearly grudges the AA too. I count my blessings when I see shit like this on MN, there are some proper bitter and miserable people out there 🤢

OP, on MN you must never report fraud. Wonder why people here are so against it. Could it because they are at it themselves? That’s why they defend benefit fraud so vehemently.