Would you report a friend for benefit fraud?

[Acompletelyrandomname]

The scenario:

Your child is friends with their child, that's how you know them. You're friendly and see them for play dates but you're not especially close to them as a person.

They split up with their DH after years of infidelity and the DH moved out.

She is now claiming benefits as a single parent a year on but you suspect the xDH might be living there again.

Considerations:

I think she would qualify as being a disabled person based on health problems. They also have a disabled child.

Would you report this woman?

YABU - No
YANBU - Yes

I've name changed.

Disability benefits aren’t means tested. If you mean UC leave her to it, he may have his own place and stop sometime, he may be visiting kids.

I don’t understand why people discuss their finances with one another. I use to claim tax benefit when I was younger, I never told anyone.

You sound hideous OP.

Why do you suspect it? Someone maliciously reported me for the same thing when mine were little, it wasn't even vaguely true. I lost tax credits overnight, which I relied on for childcare etc, and had to spend hours and hours proving I was entitled to them, and they didn't back pay the months I was without.

No, because you only have a suspicion and no proof.
Having said that, I am always amazed at the number of posters saying they wouldn't report someone for benefit fraud. Benefit fraud is stealing from other people with genuine financial problems! Would you also turn a blind eye to someone stealing money in the street? I hope not! These posters should grow a backbone and report fraud instead of feeling morally superior by ignoring it!

Lol, as if the exact same thread hasn't been posted a hundred times.

With friends like you who needs enemies.

Keep your nose out of what doesn't concern you, you're unlikely to know the whole story.

I hope she finds out so she can find better friends.

The only time I would would be if someone was bragging about the money they had and if they were calling people who work mugs. I'd have to do it then.

You can claim uc if the stbexh is there as long as you have fully separated and live separate lives, so could be completely legitimate

No I wouldn’t. You don’t even know for certain! You say she’s disabled and so is her child so she clearly already has a lot to deal with without being reported by her “friend” who doesn’t even have any evidence. You sound cruel and a busy body.

They split up with their DH after years of infidelity and the DH moved out.
She is now claiming benefits as a single parent a year on but you suspect the xDH might be living there again.

He sounds unreliable and the relationship sounds shaky. Judging when relationships have ended/restarted is a bit ambiguous in benefits law. For obvious reasons, if you think about it.

This is a extract from the decision makers guide to give you an idea of how messy and subjective these things are:

All factors of their relationship have to be considered. The significance of each
factor can only be determined in the context of all of the factors with none being
decisive. There is more to the determination than the cold, observable facts. The
characteristics of the relationship may include1
 mutual love
 faithfulness
 public acknowledgement
 sexual relations2
 shared surname
 children
 endurance
 stability
 interdependence
 devotion

I personally find it very understandable for women to maintain their own income, if things are still a bit casual/unsure

But then my unpopular opinion is that benefits should be paid to individuals rather than couples anyway.

I've read too many financial abuse threads on here to have any faith in the idea that men can be relied on to support women and children.

No. Besides only facts matter when reporting fraud, and you don't have any.

It’s none of your business. You don’t know what she’s claiming. Focus on your own life.

Anyone that would 'report' in this situation has something wrong with them.

Of course. It's theft - it's frankly our civic duty to do so. If you are incorrect then no harm will be done.

You sound vile.

You sound really spiteful. leave the poor woman alone

Yes. If they aren't doing anything wrong then there's not an issue
If they are, they are taking benefits away from people that need them.

Why do you need to poll people? Surely this is about your own sense of right and wrong.

Report because you know that this is happening and you think it’s wrong. Don’t report because you don’t know, for a fact it is.

There's a difference between having a relationship with someone and being a single financial unit.
He can be round lots and stay over lots. But if he's not supporting her financially (other than cms) then they're still 2 separate units. If she's not washing his clothes, making too meals, etc etc then she's still existing on her own as far as benefits are concerned.
You need to be sure about how much financial support he's giving her before you drag away the benefits she has.
If he's paying council tax elsewhere and maintaining a home then her seeing him is not fraud.

It’s none of your business and it doesn’t even sound like you have the facts straight anyway.

I couldn’t call someone a friends if I was considering reporting them for something, unless it was an extremely serious criminal offence, and then I’d be unlikely to be friends with them anyway.

You sound like a good friend to have. Why not report her and make her already miserable life worse? Think how proud you'll feel if she is arrested and publicly shamed and it will be due to you poking your uninformed nose into someone else's life. I don't know how some people live with themselves.

They always name change for them as well. I think that's an abuse of the name change facility personally.

So you don’t even know he’s living there for definite, get a hobby and mind your own business.