To ask whether anyone here has ever been investigated by DWP for “living with a partner”?

[Labradorlover987]

My friend has just been asked to attend a compliance interview at the job centre - she claims universal credit as a single mother to 2 kids, and single person council tax discount she has a boyfriend but they don’t live together full time - he lives with his father - he obviously stays over 3/4 nights a week.

Just wondered what the process was etc

I have never posted about benefits 😆 not sure why people on here are so paranoid’ check my history if you need proof x

I am aware of several people doing this. Claiming as a single parent and bf living there although not registered.
In these situations, those people are significantly better off than those who are working to pay their bills and rent.
All the while, the living and housing costs are being paid for by the tax payer
Very unfair

Do they investigate every report they get? Seems a bit unfair when people may be reporting maliciously

Fraud manager here- there are no set amount of days.

Ideally, yes.

As long as you weren’t paying for any food shopping or anything like that for your partners house then you weren’t doing anything wrong. I understand what you’re saying about people moving in prematurely but equally it shouldn’t be on the tax payer to foot the bill whilst someone decides if they’re ready for a partner to move in

How is it unfair? If they didn’t investigate every report imagine the thousands of pounds that could potentially be fraudulently claimed.

The abusive alkie who lives underneath me gets his food shopping and rent paid for by his mum. So he can spend his UC on booze. Why is this allowed then?

I was just thinking if it was an abusive ex for example, out to cause trouble

Did you report it?

As long as the claimant are doing it fraudulently then they can prove there is no wrong doing so it won’t cause any issues. Yeh it’ll be a pain getting documents to prove it but they can’t really cause serious trouble if there’s no wrong doing

I find the attitude towards this scenario ridiculous. Single parents should be able to have a relationship where they can take time to make sure the person is right for them especially as children are involved ?? As long as the partner can prove they legally live elsewhere have bills there etc why is it a problem? You can’t move every partner in straight away just because of UC !

No because this is what hes like when he doesnt get his booze.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4877365-to-think-housing-associations-should-have-more-accountability-who-they-choose-to-allocate-homes-to

what is fairly newish? a few weeks? Couple of months tops?

If they’re not really doing anything wrong, then investigations based on malicious grounds would be found to be fine.

Only an issue if they really are gaming the system.

Nothing unfair about that

So it's a new relationship and she lets him stay over half the time with her preteen kids?

This. Having a boyfriend who sleeps over is not at all the same as a partner who lives with you, shares income and is jointly responsible for rent/mortgage, bills etc. What they're checking is that she doesn't have another adult living with her who shares the financial responsibility of the household. Which she doesn't.

Being a single parent is hard enough without MN setting a limit on the number of times a week you're allowed to see your boyfriend before you're labelled a benefits scrounger.

Well you’ve answered your own question there,
So he can spend his UC on booze. Why is this allowed then?
He isn’t allowed but he wasn’t reported. Dwp can’t do anything about it if someone doesn’t tell them.

Im assuming by you bringing your neighbour into the thread when I said aslong as you weren’t buying food for partners place then you aren’t doing anything wrong and you didn’t answer that? Does that mean you were financially contributing to his place?

It was a few years ago now, but I did an appeal for a client who'd had their benefits stopped because they deemed her to be living with a partner.

She had dreadful neighbours who harrassed her, and was vulnerable because of mild learning disability. She would spend much of most days at either her boyfriend's or family members, to avoid the neighbours, and often cooked for and ate meals with her boyfriend because he had physical disabilities that made cooking challenging. However, she didn't often stay overnight at his, or he at hers.

At the tribunal, the members seemed most interested in the evidence we had of the harrassment, and where she kept her clothes etc.

The appeal was successful.

I think they’ve been together maybe 7 months? Just to caveat - this isn’t me and I don’t feel like she’s acting in the best way (she was married to an abusive man before so don’t think she has amazing judgement)

I knew someone doing this, basically the bf lived there full time with her and their children and literally jumped out of the window when SS turned up unexpectedly and ran back to his mother's, who he supposedly lived with nearby. At work he even bragged about how smart they were, and how they were getting all these benefits and were too clever for SS. It really annoyed me at the time and I hope your friends do get caught.

This isn’t true though. A relationship can develop slowly (more slowly) without spending most nights together. And that is also better for any kids involved. That is the opposite of saying you must invite a new partner to move in immediately.

where resources are finite taxpayers money is far better off funding schools and the NHS than single parents who are ‘testing’ relationships

I had to battle DWP over this years ago when I had a bloody lodger and they decided he was my partner! I had all the right paperwork from the council, and we did eventually win, but it bloody infuriated me.

At the same time, my sister, shacked up with her actual girlfriend - no investigation into that because they were both women.

Anyway, thats by the by - if the boyfriend can prove he is registered as paying council tax and bills/rent/mortgage at another property, then it's fine, they're doing nothing wrong.

WTF are you on about Hes just a neighbour the HA has stuck underneath me His elderly mum is using her pension to pay for him

I understand that but you didn’t report him so you can’t really complain about him receiving financial help