I'm jealous of my benefit fraud friend

[MorningCoffees2]

I know this is stupid, but it's occupying my thoughts more than it should. Me and my friend both work hard, I work in a legal job where I pay tax etc and get nothing from the government. He gets full universal credits as he is officially unemployed, however he also works aound 40 hours in a restaurant. He gets around £1000/month from UC plus maybe £1700 in pay from his job. His hourly pay is less than mine, but I have to pay tax, national insurance and I get no help from the government. I know I get holiday and sick pay, but it doesn't feel like it really makes up for our difference in income.

He's 27 and absolutely minted. He has so much disposable income, he thought nothing of buying the latest iPhone, whereas my phone is old and crap, my colthes are old and even when they were 'new' to me, they were actually second hand.

I couldn't do what he is doing because I would find it too stressful, but he has no issues with it. He's not stressed, he's very happy, he's rich...

The only downside I can see is that he might get caught, but that's pretty unlikely. It just feels so unfair.

This. I never understand these posts. Surely the frauds don't go round bragging about it ?

Not in real life no.

You've never known anyone to admit to doing something illegal? I don't smoke but I know where to buy illegal cigarettes, I don't do drugs, but I could buy them if I wanted to. He's not telling the whole world, but I don't think its a huge secret. He gets paid in cash, and he says several other people who work there do too. Maybe not the waitresses or the management, but several of the people in the kitchen work under the same conditions.

What sort of restaurant is it OP? I only need one more for full house on my benefit bashing fantasy bingo card...

Yes, that's true. He would struggle to get a mortgage or a loan, but eventually I'll be able to get one. I guess I'm looking in the short term and feeling a bit sorry for myself.

Some people do commit benefit fraud, and do tell their friends, to show them how to do it. Some people tell their friends who work that they are mugs.

The many posters telling the OP that she's a liar are more than likely very distanced from people who are reliant on benefits, and a bit naive to think that people won't lie to get benefits, or that everyone who commits benefit fraud will be caught.

Some can't help but brag, others don't see anything wrong with it. Apparently, we're the fools for not doing the same.

Well that's very Dim of them ,as sooner or later one of their " friends" will report them

It seems most of them just post on Mumsnet, judging by the sheer number of basically-identical threads.

What exactly are you hoping to get out of this thread anyway OP?

Validation, some juicy benefit-bashing, or both?

Your assuming a lot there
We claim UC ,DLA for my son and Carers allowance for me so i do have an idea of how the system works I don't however go around telling everyone how much we get
I have no doubt people do lie to try and get benefits they are not entitled too
What I don't buy is that they then brag about it as that would be very stupid of them.

So report him or stop going on about it

The many posters telling the OP that she's a liar are more than likely very distanced from people who are reliant on benefits

Hi there. I claim a benefit as does my husband.

Most of these types of threads are bullshit.

In today’s edition of ‘Things That Never Happened…’ 🤔 🤔

I'm not benefit bashing. I've made no sweeping statements about people on benefits. I didn't even say I wanted to report him, because I think benefit fraud is small fry compared to the millions that politicians give to their mates in 'contratcs'. And if I reported everything I ever knew of that was illegal, I'd be spending a lot of my time bothering the police.

I was brought up on benefits, my mother is still on benefits, I have no issue with benefits. I'm just a bit sad that he has more money than me and his lifestyle seems to have few downsides. It's hard not to compare our lives.

And for those of you who say you never discuss your finances with friends, do you really think that every friendship group behaves in the exact same way as you do with your friends? When I was a student, we regularly discussed how much (more accurately, how little) we had in our bank accounts. When we got our first jobs, we compared wages. I have different friends now to my uni friends, but finances are not a big secret for us.

So, what is it you were hoping to achieve by posting this thread? I am curious.

How does he get £1000 when the UC allowance is £400?

Can you explain the discrepancy in your figures please?

Why are you friends with him if he's a fraudster?

If you don't like this thread, you are welcome to not read it. If you think I'm lying, you are welcome to report me. Troll hunting is against mumsnet talk guidelines. Me posting about my jealousy is not.

I would say at least 50% of the threads on here have some poster claiming it's made up. It's very boring and repetative and disrupts the flow of the thread. Mumsnet has given you a means to report threads that you think are untrue, use it. Endless cries of "that's not true" littered throught many, many threads is very dull. Even if you feel you're being hilarious, this ' bingo card' humour has acutally been done to death.

Report him 💁

So the restaurant is employing him under the table? You could always snitch.

Oooooh….

Yes, of course. There are two elements in universal credits, one is a standard allowance, which you are right is around £400 and the other is housing, which for him is around £600. He is in London, I don't know how it compares to other parts of the country. Both elements are paid as one lump sum, which for him is almost £1000.

Edited because of a typo, I wrote 'housing benefit' instead of 'universal credits'. Sorry for anyone I confused.

What type of housing is he in? Houseshare? Flat on his own?

Just report it. It's that straightforward.