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.

It's not up to OP to make a diagnosis... That's fir the medics.

She should definitely anonymously report her... I'd also take screenshots of her FB posts showing her walking up mountains /doing anything else that is against what she claimed.

Why would she think it's you? If she's boasting it could be anyone...

I recently anonymously reported someone similar... I have never met them... But this man is a friend of a friend...

Benefits agency take these reports seriously.

And like ive said, you seem obsessed. This woman has not been in your life for years according to you, yet you are gossiping about her and stalking her social media and think you have all the facts. So go ahead and report. But you seem to have an awful lot of information for someone that you haven't personally been around for years.

And like I previously suggested, maybe you should be more like this old friend who has a million hobbies, and get some hobbies for yourself so that you dont need to spend all your time obsessing over someone who isnt even in your life.

Yes but my point is she can't accuse her of having no health issues and muchausens, the two are kinda opposites of each other.

I’d report it without giving it any thought. I can’t stand scammers or thieves. They ruin it for everyone else. There are lots of people that really deserve help that can’t get it. Money needs to go to the right people.

This sounds so similar. Towards the end of the friendship she started to post her kids tantrums for sympathy online literally documenting how she’s after a diagnosis and you can see the cycle continue.

I have stated in this thread I don’t believe nothing is wrong with her but that it is inaccurate to what she claims.

Cooking can be bloody hazardous for people with ADHD. They get distracted and leave things on the hob or under the grill, and don't realise until the smoke alarm goes off.

If you can't cook safely without supervision, that's 4 of the 8 points you need to get the standard rate of the daily living component.

To be able to do something in PIP terms, you have to be able to do it safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable timescale. If you can't meet those 4 tests the majority of the time for any of the PIP activities, you should be awarded points for that activity.

People are often very quick to consider that someone is not "disabled" when they only see them out and about on a good day, which is often the case because people with fluctuating conditions can only go out when they're having a good day.

Are you going to explain what this post was about and why you bought your mum into it or are you just going to keep dodging that?

I would report her. The fewer people we have playing the system the more money there is for the genuinely disabled. Which is how it should be.

If she’s not playing the system she has nothing to worry about and you’ve fulfilled your social duty.

That is not how it works. Stopping fraud does not mean the genuine get more money. Never has and never will.

You need to distance yourself from her digitally as well as physically now OP, stop watching her updates and block her online, you will drive yourself mad with jealousy/spite.

And I also think she will guess it’s you who has reported her if she knows why you ended the friendship

Im not sure, I didn’t actually confront her about it I didn’t have the balls. I was working as a carer at the time and knew she would have retaliated.

Shes not on my socials it was through a tagged post. I had compartmentalised this whole situation for a long time and guess it just stired it up for me. I don’t think people understand how hard a situation like this is until they see a family member or friend do this. If I reported her now I’d only be a hypocrite for not doing it when she had partners living with her. It’s just the health claims that got under my skin. Who knows maybe it really is that bad and she stopped coning thr system and it’s now genuine.

If this is true, I would absolutely report, and I would provide evidence from her social media of her doing various sports or climbing mountains.

There was a story not that long ago of someone claiming to be seriously physically disabled and unable to leave the house yet was posting pictures of herself on a zipwire in Mexico. She is having to repay over £23,000 and quite right too.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4vmw27x13o

If you are too ashamed to leave your name when reporting, then don't do it.

Have the courage of your convictions.

As someone on Universal Credit who gets no personal allowance and only the majority of my rent paid and is scheduled on average 5 hours a month at work, I'd say absolutely report them.

she had a child and moved to get multiple diagnoses = munchausen by proxy?

People like this make my blood boil! My husband had to jump through hoops to get benefits- and believe me, he hates claiming it,he'd much rather be working-and he panics like hell if he's maybe doing a bit of gardening or going for a short motorbike ride in case anyone reports him for it!

Exactly! The stress it causes and becoming financially dependant on it is enough, let alone someone making assumptions and assuming it’s all lies and then report you. I don’t get why people interfere. My point was that this is messing with people’s finances and life. They can suspend the benefit until they have done a full investigation which leaves people in the shit with rent, bills and not being able to feed their families.

And now imagine if after doing all that, someone saw him on a rare good day and then reported him because he seems fine.
I absolutely hate if people are genuinely gaming the system, but when stories arent completely made up to cause nastiness around benefits, some of the people saying I know this person on benefits and they are fine could well be seeing someone that absolutely struggles at times and they dont see it but on a rare good day, venture out of the house only to be accused of not being ill.

Remember this poster supposedly hasnt been around this woman in years or in her life so its based off of some social media posts and second hand gossip.

I promise for as genuine as your Husbands health issues are, there will be people at some point that have seen him look 'ok' and will have judged him negativity if they knew he got benefits, no matter how much he genuinely needs its and struggles and thats the point. These posts just encourage and aid the venom towards all benefits claimants including those very much in need. These posts give the impression that if you are disabled you are not meant to leave your home or have a moment of happiness because you are constantly being judged.

There are loads and loads of chronic conditions that have no clinically objective test, and loads of websites that describe these in detail and state exactly how to describe the impact such a condition would have on your life in a way that meets maximum criteria for pip claims.

Examples:
Fibromyalgia
Hypermobile ehlers danlos
ME/chronic fatigue syndrome
Anxiety and depressive disorders

There are people who are truly, severely impaired by all of these (lets call them Group A)

There are people who don't have easy lives, who struggle, who truly truly believe they have and are severely impaired by all of these. Some of these people could probably also be helped by other things, like social support, fulfilling work & hobbies, and healthy lifestyles. (Group B).

There are people who kinda know on some level they probably aren't really that ill, but meet some criteria for these conditions, and have lives that are really hard (single parenting, young kids, caring responsibilities, low income, lack of social support networks), and want to claim benefits to make life easier. They see other people doing it, and life isn't fair, and they just want a break. (Group C).

There are people who simply see an opportunity and are willing to put in a massive effort to access benefits they know full well they don't deserve. (Group D)

A lot of people are A.

But pretending there arent also plenty of Bs, Cs and Ds is just naive. Modern western capitalism & social structure has really left a hell of a lot of people behind. Our economy has floundered in most of the country for decades. The NHS has suffered from strain & chronic underinvestment. Our society is unequal and unfair.

People are tired, poor, and lacking hope. Is it it any wonder people want benefits?

I agree, it feels as if disabled people should be shut up at home at all times, and if they're out having any kind of a life they are somehow "faking it" or "not disabled enough".

For sure, no matter what there will be people in life that take the piss and game a system and thats shit. But there are a lot of genuine people that then get scrutinised and made to feel awful because people assume then that anyone with these conditions or others is doing the same. Anything that cant be seen or isnt immediately clear, is scrutinised to such a degree that people are scared to have a good day for people judging them.

I used to claim benefits when my health was first awful and genuinely you feel like you cannot leave your home without judgement. Luckily my Husband now earns enough to support us but my god it was awful feeling like having a good day would mean people got to judge anything I did.

And I dont agree at all about hypermobile eds, fibro, anxiety and ME absolutely could be abused but the diagnosis criteria for hypermobile eds is so strict you literally cannot fake the criteria, and you have to have a lot of them as well as a high beighton score and be suffering with pain. I have a friend who has this and the criteria is really focused and not something you could possibly fake at all, firstly it would take years to get flexible and even then you couldn't hyper extend your joints, you can't fake translucent skin, stretchy skin, long wing span, teeth issues, eye issues, these are all things you can see. It just happens to be the sub type they havent yet pinned down the genetic marker for so its the type they can't genetically test yet but please dont lump that in if you dont know about it. I promise no one is faking their joints popping out of the socket because they tripped or sneezed hard for some benefits! Its incredibly debilitating.

Absolutely and its what the media has essentially encouraged and posts like this encourage it too. As if its not bad enough that you spend so much of your life miserable and in pain, you then have to worry that if you have a good day then you will be judged for that too and if the complaint is taken seriously, could financially cripple you whilst you are also dealing with shitty health.

I no longer have benefits as we can financially manage without and I got so sick of feeling stressed on the rare days I did have a good day, but I genuinely would have given every penny I got and much more to swap with one of these people who are sitting judging. I guarantee living my life, or most of these people's lives for a week would be enough to shut them up. And some of these conditions that are genuinely debilitating can start at any point in your life, so before you judge and slate anyone you deem not ill enough, just put yourself on the other side because you could be on the other side of this one day.

That's what worries him!
Yes he may go out on his motorbike for a couple of hours or wash the car- at the end of the day,he's got to live and not just exist- but he bloody pays for it the next day; he can barely move. That's what people don't see....