aquaintance is frauduntly claiming benefits..... aibu to want to shop her

[ratherstayanno]

I cant say its a friend. Its more of an aquaintance. She is also 'sort of friendly' with someone else i know.

She was seperated from her husband. They both had seperate houses. He would go to hers everyday to help look after their DD, she would walk his dog and her dog. They weekly go dancing and socialise together.

Shes alwasys saying how skint she is, cant afford nursery, shopping in farm foods and car boots. End of last year and all of a sudden she is going on a 3 week holiday to america. With him.
Bit odd i thought, but then i hear they are back together. Apparently he stays everynight, but just takes a carrier bag of stuff. They both still have their own ( mortgaged) houses.
She is still claming single persons tax credits. I know this for a fact.
He has just brought her a new car and they have booked 2 holidays before june this year.

She was invited, with her child to a recent fundrasing event. She asked if she could bring her husband along.

This is relevent as shes not hiding the fac they are back togther, but is still openingly claiming tax credits for single person.

It sort of bothers me. But i dont know if i should actually do anything about it or not.

kinives, you are pissing me off... grow up.

James, - ive not stuck my oar in. I activley try and avoid this woman. She follows me round the park/wood/etc..... Then tells me things i dont what to know.

Ratherstayanno. When I was in that situation, it was partly because Dhs house was unihabitable, due to major rennovations, so it wouldn't have been safe to allow the dc to live there. That was what I told people.

The truth was DH was suffering depression and was behving like a complete an utter twat. Bullying, controlling and agressive. I just wanted to get his house done up and have him out of mine. I wasn't moving in untill I had saved enough money to move straight back out again, when things went tits up.

I didn't get that opprtunity, because some jobsworth at the council questioned the £15 per month he was paying into my savings account and we had all our finances looked into. His and mine. During which my HB was stopped and I was given an eviction notice. I had no choice but to move in with him and let my house go.

I spent the time running up to the move beside myself. Feeling very trapped and lonely. But had no where else I could go.

FWIW we were cleared of any wrong doing because he was paying for his house and me mine. We had done nothing wrong. But I am still stuck in his house with no where else to go. Fortunately t'is not as bad as thought it would have been.

If you want to put this woman through that fine. Go ahead.

littlemis.
I dont know. Ive not been in that situation.

There is some sort of tax relief on mortages for married people who split and live seperately. I know this because our mortgage advisor suggested we pretend we had split up when we were buying a new house and keeping our old one to rent out.

We got a new mortgage advisor.

shockers, that is terrible.

If she is genuinely trying to rebuild her marriage and taking it slowly then that's one thing. If she just likes a part-time husband (because he bores her) and benefits help her with that, it's wrong!

Right back at you OP.

Why you still here, shouldn't you be poking your nose into somebody elses' business and getting worked up about it?

Whywould it mess up her life by the OP shopping her?

If she is doing nothing wrong nothing would happen, if she is falsely claiming she'd get what she deserves.

People falsely claiming benefits costs a fortune, granted not as much as other issues but none the less it isn't fine is it!

OP... if you think she's really on the make, you could tell the fraud line and leave it up to them.
If she is... it's stealing. If she's not, she will be cleared (but probably quite upset).

You've said she's admitted to benefit fraud and laughed about it so why are you asking us?

It's not as if you're wrestling with the moral implications of whether you should grass someone up or whether there's more to her story than what she's told you.

You said in the OP "It sort of bothers me. But I don't know if I should actually do anything about it or not."

Now you're saying "what she is doing is still wrong. howver you try and spin it onto me. its wrong. Ive not comitted fraud. SHE HAS.

I actually work in a deprived area with families. They are the ones in need. Even £20 a month extra would make a difference to them. Yet, she, Takes several hundread a month, and thinks its funny."

So what are you waiting for? National Benefit Fraud Hotline 0800 854 440

she is not committing benefit fraud tho, you are suspecting her off it, big difference!

just what kind of car and exotic holiday do you think someone can afford on 50 quid a week? seriously what planet do you live on?

You sound jealous and bitter and twisted and quite unpleasant frankly.

If this woman was in a relationship with someone else (not her husband) and that someone bought her a new car would you think it was morally wrong? no thought not.

Imo there's something more to this - do you fancy her husband? Are you perhaps jealous that he's with her and not you? Maybe you thought that when they split up you'd get a chance with him.

Tamarto, they would stop all of her money while they were investigating. They therefoire wouldn't be able to afford to live seperately. We have no idea why she left him. But I very much doubt that she is paying hundreds extra each month because 'he was a bit boring' .

well as you said stealings a crime, so if you could do it to an "aquaintance" then you could do it to a friend, or is it 1 set of values for 1 person and completely different set for another?

as i said before rather and as so many others have said, it looks like you have made up your mind so instead of moaning about it do it, but what goes around comes around.. remember that!!

I love the thought of this woman chasing OP round the park shouting '"He's bought me a new car!! And we're going on two holidays!! He lives with us but I'm claiming Tax Credits for myself!! HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! See you tomorrow!! Come on, Fido!"

They arent currently commiting fraud. Her (ex) husband is not currently living there, with that his main residence.

If he were to move his stuff in, rent out/sell his house and still claim single parent then yes, you can "shop them"

But currently they run two seperate households. She is the sole carer of her child residing in that house. They are working on their relationship, and sleep together.

Yes, they get "benefits" for this, but they are not commiting fraud as such.

I am still "married", on paper. My (ex) husband has his own place. His finances are not taken into account at all with my benefits and tax credits. If we were to ever try again (believe me we wont) we wouldnt have to declare him living here until he moved his stuff in permenantly. He could stay over as much as he wanted. (well apart from mine is a council house where the contract states no person can stay more than 3 nights a week or they could then put a claim into the house/do for overcrowding. I'm guessing this is where the 3 nights benefit myth comes from)

YABU.

If you have already decided what you want to do, why are you asking us?

shineyandnew, they only stop the money if there is evidence that there is fraud being carried out, evidence that is more that someones say so.

spotty... lol. very funny. but not too far from the truth. If you include me hiding behind a bush or something then your about right.

Wannabe - wtf are you on about! Honestly!

"I activley try and avoid this woman. She follows me round the park/wood/etc..... Then tells me things i dont what to know."

right....

For what it's worth when I split up with my wife there was a short time when we were not speaking at all then we got over it and I was around there a lot. I'd do jobs in the house, Do stuff with the kids and so on. I'd sleep there quite a lot since I couldn't afford a car and it was a long walk home in the rain. We were still technically married then.

It never occurred to count how many days I was there. Our incomes and bills were separate so we were not a 'couple' any more. In time we both found someone else, but for a while I could have been accused of the same thing.

We didn't have holidays though (too poor) so I guess we didn't arouse the same kind of jealousy.

I was thinking the exact same thing Spotty.

"Oh yeah, and he brings his clothes over in a carrier bag, but we're totally cheating the system and he's really good at lick-outs"

I mean, come on!

"Whywould it mess up her life by the OP shopping her?

If she is doing nothing wrong nothing would happen, if she is falsely claiming she'd get what she deserves."

This has been said before. If you are sure of this and are on benefit then call the anonymous hotline and report yourself. It can't do any harm right?

its not jealously.

Can someone tell me why they think i would be jealous of her. WHY!

They are, as she has said 100% back together.
Before they were back together he was like you onagar.
It wasnt fraud when they were seperated.
But now, they are back together and it is.

I will phone the fraud hotline. they can look at it. If they have done no wrong then nothing will happen will it.

Poeple who know that crimes are being comitted at let it go are allowing crime to continue.

I would phone the fraud line in a second. Why should other people pay extra so a minority can lie and cheat?

Why bother asking when you've already made your mind up?

PLEASE read ShineyAndNew's posts again, then just re-think what you're doing.

and again, please just mind your own business!