AIBU to consider reporting someone I believe is committing benefit fraud?

[Hereforadviceee]

Would you report someone for benefit fraud?

Just that. It’s someone I used to know quite well but drifted apart from mainly due to this and from time to time I feel angry that they have made a living out of coning the system and quite often people around them. They claim they can’t walk or leave the house but go to at least 6 countries a year and do a mix of sports regularly they post online.

It hits a nerve as a lot of my family members are genuinely disabled and have struggled to get the right support. This person doesn’t have to pay council tax has every benefit you can think of and will literally use a wheelchair whenever their pip stops then go back to the sports and hiking holidays they do regular whilst claiming they can’t work and they even have been awarded carers to come in and help them. I’ve known this person for nearly 2 decades and they started this in their teens and would often brag about it and how to do it and even helped other friends at the time get awarded benefits so it’s not a case I don’t know them enough to know it’s bullshit. I always thought they would grow out of it as their life progressed.

I don’t think I actually will mainly because I’m so worried they would guess it was me and they are known to be very vindictive such as reporting people to social services or emailing job places to try ‘ ruin people ‘but I guess I’d like to vent as myself and so many people work their socks off to break even each month.

What do her carers do for her? It's really hard to get carers even if you are genuinely disabled, so I'm wondering if you know all of the facts.

We were best friends which ended couple years ago. But they would come in and clean or make her lunch. For her adhd. I worked as a carer for a few years between jobs and I think that hit a nerve too.
Her pip was stopped and then she would fake fall in front of her doorbell and use this stuff as evidence they even sent me a photo of something their kid made smashed on the floor and took a photo of her partner clearing it up. They do regular circus sports, and outdoor sports and holidays but have benefits on the basis they can’t leave the house on their own or work.

I know there is no point. I think it’s cause I’ll see another social media post of how she’s climbed a mountain somewhere and it just rubs me up the wrong way. I went to go pay my council tax and realised I’ve over paid and had this flash back to them laughing that they don’t have to pay that with her Adhd diagnosis.

Yes I would and have done. It can be done on line anonymously

Do you have to leave any of your personal details? What details did you have to leave? Did you have to show evidence?

Ofcourse you should. It needs investigating. Our tax shouldn’t be paid to those that can work. It’s definitely not for paying for holidays and hiking trips.

Yup I do agree but I’m worried she may think it’s me. I don’t even know if any good would come of it. At times I’ve wanted to believe karma would happen. They would literally study diagnoses she wanted to have and go private and be diagnosed with something new every month. I couldn’t deal with it anymore the last time I saw her she was wanting to be diagnosed as being deaf and was putting a complaint in to the doctors surgery as the doctor did a telephone appointment and didn’t take her deafness seriously

Yes report anonymously.

I’m on benefits and this boils my blood, the deceivers make it so much harder for genuine people in need to be taken seriously.

Ive been reported and it was horribly nerve wracking, but I knew I had done nothing wrong and was vindicated.
It’s easy for me to say in your place I would report them but I have a former friend working full time cash in hand while claiming she’s too ill to work and cashing in and I’m too afraid to report.

She’s a former friend and you can do it anonymously.

Nice try OP. Yet another jealous poster trying to stoke up hatred for the disabled community. It is beyond difficult to get PIP let alone carers. You don’t just fake a fall. It’s nonsense.
Disabled people are perfectly entitled to go abroad on holiday as often as they want to. Ditto play sports.

Is it PIP you are worried she’s claiming fraudulently? I only ask because you can get PIP while working and indeed go on holiday or take part in sports etcetera. Is it perhaps you @Hereforadviceee don’t understand how it works?

Why would she be using a wheelchair to get pip if as you say the basis of her pip claim is ADHD? I’m confused.

Also you say she’s been doing this for two decades but as far as I know, you’ve only been able to get pip for ADHD since the big reforms in 2013 and certainly between 2002 and 2013 when I was helping my dad with his benefits that he needed for severe mental health issues, and my mum for her physical disabilities, it was almost impossible to get DLA specifically for MH, to the point that my dad didn’t qualify for it and only got incapacity. Whereas it was much easier to get top whack DLA and incapacity for my mum with her unknown back problem with no specific diagnosis. So it seems bizarre to me that your friend would have been using a strategy of ADHD to fool the system since 2006 that was a lot more difficult than claiming for something like a bad back which was a lot easier at the time. Especially as it was virtually impossible to get an ADHD diagnosis as a female back then because so much less was known about it. I think you know a lot less about this than you think OP.

The Invictus Games has shown that profoundly disabled people can and do take part in energetic sports. However agencies like the DWP can look online to investigate lifestyles when they are tipped off. They also do clandestine surveillance in suspected cases. If your friend is cheating the system by claiming that she is in a wheelchair and unable to leave the house then she is very foolish by putting her sports and active holidays online. She is more or less inviting investigation. People who really are successfully cheating the system do not discuss their private affairs with outsiders. Nor do they live their lives online. They keep their heads down and their mouths shut.

It’s not just adhd she’s got a private diagnosis for autism, she also claims I have me, fibromyalgia, now deaf, bpd, aniexty and so on. When she started it wasn’t called pip then when that changed she was deemed not to qualify and that’s when all a sudden she was using a wheelchair and crutches this lasted a couple of months and then she never used them again. She also posts about her health online not just the holidays and sports etc.

I’ve grown up with mother in a wheel chair and been a carer and I honestly do not believe she is genuinely as physically disabled as she claims, based on the fact she told me she blags it but also I do not think it’s a case she has nothing wrong with her but I think she has fictitious disorder. Reason I stepped back from the friendship as when she had a child it moved to her trying to get multiple diagnoses for them.

She’s incredibly smart but will make out she cannot work or make herself a meal. A child school is a minutes walk and she does not get her child to school anymore but like I said does regular sports and hikes with no issue I could not keep up with them. But it seemed when it was stuff she didn’t want to do she would struggle.

I’m trying not to give too much information as I’m even worried they will see this. She claims to have multiple issues. I believe she started using the wheel chair and crutches as she was not eligible for the higher physical disability element. This is when she started sending me videos of her falling and then that was never a problem again and the wheelchair and crutches were put away.

I don’t have hatred for the disabled community my mum is disabled and when she fell would break bones and smash her face not sway and then sit on the ground and somehow have all these falls filmed ready for her next appeal.

Since when did the DWP look at videos to prove disabilities? They don't.

You don’t get pip for diagnoses.

If 100% report. If there’s no wrong doing she’ll be fine. If there is then tough shit

too many people taking the piss with benefits

Benefits Britain. The perks that keep perking

Report her if you must.

If you look into it they actually can.

Here we go another benefit bashing post that seems to bring together all the usual cliches and misunderstanding about benefit claimants.

So a reminder that:

• PIP is NOT an out of work benefit
• Nobody is going to get carers coming to their home simply because they have ADHD
• Nobody gets PIP without supporting evidence from healthcare professionals and this is regularly reviewed. Evidence certainly does not involve random videos taken by the claimant.

So nice try but I suggest you concentrate on your life.

If she's been able to convince doctors that she has these health conditions and convince PIP assessors that they affect her so badly that she's entitled to the higher mobility element, she deserves a bloody Oscar for her acting ability.

I retired last year after working in welfare rights for over 20 years. Around a third of the PIP applications I did were initially declined, but I had 100% success rate at appeals. It's bloody hard for people who are entitled to PIP to get it, this story is just breathtaking.

Are you positive that she doesn't have some sort of relapsing/remitting health condition and that it is all faked, OP?

To be honest I don’t think I even will. I just wanted to vent. I don’t think even if they were investigated it would do anything they have the paperwork and if a doctor didn’t agree she would just find another one or go private until someone gives them another label to add. I’ve known them since they were a teenager and I can see them doing this now with her child. I know im going to get flamed but I do think you can spot bullshit when you see it. I’ve worked as a carer and my mother is in a wheelchair.