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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to report FIL for benefit fraud???

63 replies

cantmummyhaveabreak · 01/12/2009 11:14

FIL is clearly fiddling the system, he used to be a successful buissnessman and has had a bad turn of events with the credit crunch and lost his buissness. (am i even spelling bussiness right? so many 'S's' i'm getting blurry vision)...

Anyway he is on the sick now even though i know he shouldn't be, he is working his own small stall on a market but has just gone bankrupt. Has lost his house and is now living in a council house and on sick benefits, with S-MIL classed as his 'carer'...

I'm really annoyed, i know he shouldn't be running his own bussiness (the stall) when he's getting sick benefit, and on top of that he's doing his usual seasonal work over xmas which i know will get him a lot of money.

DH said he's keeping out of it but just hopes he'll get caught out. FIL has done a lot wrong by DH in his childhood and DH has just got past caring now.

AIBU to make an annonymous call to report him? I mean if someone googled his name they'd see his seasonal work come up anyway!!

OP posts:
Miggsie · 01/12/2009 11:15

Well a benefit cheat is a benefit cheat and if you rhink people should not cheat the system then report him.

Miggsie · 01/12/2009 11:16

sorry THINK not rhink!

YANBU

madamearcati · 01/12/2009 11:18

poor bloke he's gone bankrupt and lost his house.Do you really need to kick him when he's down ?

titfertat · 01/12/2009 11:20

seriously don't do this. My FIL does soemthing similar and I do know how you feel but if your DH / PIL ever found out you really don't know what could happen. Do you want to risk losing these relationships?

JollyMrsChristmas · 01/12/2009 11:20

its wrong but poor blokes lost everything

he knows the risks but for his DIL to report him?

i wouldnt, 4 weeks before xmas too.

wonderingwondering · 01/12/2009 11:21

That is awful: I don't agree with benefit fraud but equally, I REALLY don't agree with dobbing your relatives in. Where's the loyalty? If you think what he is doing is wrong, make that clear to him by all means. But reporting your own in-laws? For a financial matter?

What next? Our children monitoring us in our own homes? Let's completely undermine family loyalty in the interests of the 'greater good', shall we? Except that's not even your motivation: it appears to be pure vindictiveness. Lovely.

Knownowt · 01/12/2009 11:23

I have no time for benefit cheats but wouldn't do this in a million years, sorry.

Aeschylus · 01/12/2009 11:23

it is a tough one, my brother cheats lies, does everything he can to get benefits, only works for cash in hand, always signs off JSA for a week to reset his time so he does not get sent on those stupid seminars, always has money....

who are the idiots, us honest people I expect....

Original poster
cantmummyhaveabreak · 01/12/2009 11:24

i dont think people should cheat the system- me and DH are young and raising a young family of 3DC's. DH works damn bloody hard but yet his dad is fiddling the sytem to get more money for his money-grabbing ways.

He's really got to me, but i dont think DH would want me to actually be the one to report him... but he hates benefit cheats too and says he can't wait till he's found out!!

OP posts:
Miggsie · 01/12/2009 11:25

I am also amazed he is getting sick benefit...how did he swing that?

My seriously disabled friend has to practically beg not to have her sick benefits cut every so often when the governemnt decides being sick is costing them too much.

And if they are claiming carers allowance for a man who is not sick this is terrible...carers allowance is for people with truly hard lives caring for a sick relative.

I am disabled and I hate people claiming sick and pretending to be ill when they are not.

Also, if you are bankrupt, doesn't that mean you are barred from setting up anohter business for 2 years????????

Your FIL sounds truly dishonest.

Original poster
cantmummyhaveabreak · 01/12/2009 11:26

he's earning money from his job's though... he's gone on the sick so he can get a new car, he lost his bussiness because he was too stupid and drank away all his money according to DH...

off to collect DD1 from nursery but will be abck later.

OP posts:
WhoIsAskingSantaForCake · 01/12/2009 11:27

'Tis the season to be jolly, falalalalaalalala!

Original poster
cantmummyhaveabreak · 01/12/2009 11:27

miggsie- yes i thought that so he's clearly set it up so he's fraudulently got his bussiness still... but yet had all his debts cleared.

OP posts:
Miggsie · 01/12/2009 11:30

sounds like he went bankrupt to avoid paying debts and is starting again by defrauding the benefits system.

I bet he will fiddle his tax returns and claim no income as he will be taking cash at his stall.

Sorry to be so down on your FIL but if he is happy to claim sick, not pay his debts etc then he probably won't be entirely truthful in other areas of his life either.

Original poster
cantmummyhaveabreak · 01/12/2009 11:32

He has been fiddling tax for years- even signed over a car into DH's name fraudulently so the tax man couldn't prove it was his (V. expencive car) and the first we knew about it was the DVLA sending us the log book thingy for the car- i was close to reporting him then, but now this!!??

right i AM off!!

OP posts:
ginnny · 01/12/2009 11:39

I agree that he is totally in the wrong, but you shouldn't shop him, although I can see how hard it must be when you and DH are working hard to support your family and he seems to be getting money for nothing
I don't think you should 'shop' him though.
If it gets back that it was you, it would be catastrophic for everyone. Your DH might say he can't wait till he gets caught but actually making sure he does is another matter entirely.
Just bite your tongue and believe in karma - he'll get his just deserts one day anyway without your help, most of these people do.

madamearcati · 01/12/2009 11:43

Miggsie I think you are barred from being a company director for too years , but you can run an unincorporated business.

itwascertainlyasurprise · 01/12/2009 11:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

wonderingwondering · 01/12/2009 11:46

I don't believe in karma -I reconcile the 'unfairness' of people behaving like that, while I work hard, with the thought that at least I have my self-respect.

If I shopped my own PIL, I wouldn't.

Biobytes · 01/12/2009 11:47

Well, just look at it this way... if they loose their council house... whose house may they end up spending their homelessness with?

EldonAve · 01/12/2009 11:52

YANBU go ahead and report him

diddl · 01/12/2009 11:52

So is he claiming benefits for himself, plus his wife getting benefits as his carer, plus he is actually working?

Original poster
cantmummyhaveabreak · 01/12/2009 12:06

diddl- yep, he's working, earning about the same amount as DH does... PLUS he is getting an income for himself off the sick, and for his wife as his carer.

Myself and DH have never been on any sort of benefit, and do believe that benefits are there for people who need them. Not people like him who are using it as an 'extra' income!!

OP posts:
Original poster
cantmummyhaveabreak · 01/12/2009 12:48

it seems this thread is one of 2 halves... and hasn't really helped me...

I mean i've been close before- there are many things that he has done in the past that have been very wrong, and now this aswell. BUT something has always stopped me in the past... maybe something in the very back of my mind would feel very bad about doing it and thats why i never have done before.

He is a terrible father, a worse grandfather a liar, cheat and a fraud and yet he still acts like he has his bread buttered on both sides!!

OP posts:
WhereTheWildThingsWere · 01/12/2009 12:55

You really want this kind of thing on your concience?

Leave him alone, there are relevant authorities to catch up with this, it's none of your business, concentrate on those you love instead.