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.

Again my apologies, this is your issue
Forgive me??

TBH I'd say nothing about it, especially as she was always complaining about being skint etc.

OP, you don't have to be rude to someone, you could just say nicely 'I'd rather you didn't tell me about it tbh, as I feel uncomfortable being put in a quandry as to whether or not to shop you'

Or something along those lines. I'm sure she'd leave you alone after that.

i never said you lived in a deprived area.... please, tell me, when did i say that???

What i said was, that i work with families in a deprived area.

Nothing to do with you at all.

But i can see its not about that, this thread has just been reduced to a bun fight.

Seeing as ive been acused of having a 'god complex', clearly i am better than than so am off to save the universe..... or something.

rather - one thing i don't understand is... how are you going to report her? I mean, it's a woman you bump into while walking your dog, so, presumably, you don't know her full name and address, so what are you going to say when you ring them? "There's this woman that walks the dog at the same place i do, and apparently..."

this thread is really funny

I am definitely looking into tax credits if they can fund 2nd homes, new vehicles and multiple holidays

gosh I find that quite scary that you

a) equate benefits with deprived areas and vice versa

b) At 1.30 this afternoon you clearly didn't know that you can still be married and claiming as a single person

c) By the sounds of things were going to ring these people to report something that they don't deal with.

strictlykatty....do you seriously believe if there was a drop in benefit claimants then tax bills would go down??? seriously?? not that the government would use the deficit for something else instead???

they would still take your tax!! its that er,simple!!!

awass - what are you talking about.

I dont equate benefits with deprived areas. Certainly not. What i said was that i worked with families in deprived areas. You are trying, unsucessfully to twist my words.

At 1.30 this afternoon, i did indeed know that you can be married and claiming as a single person. As perviously mentioned i help families access benefits/tax credits. If i didnt know this, i wouldnt be able to do my job.

I was never going to ring the benefit hotline. I would have rung the tax credits people, as that who she is claiming incorrectly through.

clevercircus. I do know her. I know her name, and where she lives and works. I have been ' bumping inot her' in the park for 2 years.

but they arent living together?! yes, he stays over many (if not every) night. But they arent LIVING together. He has his own seperate house. Her house is not his main residence.

If he werent the childrens father, if they werent married and this was just some guy she had staying over most nights, would you feel the same?

Maybe they are "together" but chosen not to live together (married but not living together is becoming more common, think Helene Bonham Carter). Even though they are married, if this is the case THERE IS NO FRAUD. They are doing things perfectly legally.

ermm at 13.31 you said

"legally she is still married too.

I dont understand how she can be claiming for being single."

beacuse, she is married. They are living together ( by any defination, he just has another place he visits)
They have joint finances.

no,its not the tax credits....its the local council you would need to inform.

for the housing benefit and council tax. those are where you get a single adult premium. probably as well as tax credits

not sure tho....maybe dwp hotline is the one and they inform the other agencies?

so this other house he visits is not his then? he is not paying council tax, mortgage/rent, utility bills for it?

am confused, at first it sounded as though they were maintaining separate residences

anyway do not care

just phone them already - why haven't you?

yes but I'm married and living together with my H right now, but if I so wished (I don't think I will because I cba to rehash all the finances for a couple of months) I could ring up and start claiming as a single parent on Monday morning - and do so legitimately.

he has bought her a new car??????? Surely if their finances are "joint" then it would be "they have bought a new car for her to use"?

It is perfectly conceivable that HE is paying for these things out of his money, which he also using to maintain his house while she is contiuing to pay her own household bills etc out of her money.

OP yabu for asking aibu when not only have you already decided yanbu but have apparently detailed professional knowledge of the field

why bother?

"They are together as any other married couple"

No they're not. They are, according to you, running and paying for 2 seperate households.

Most married couples live together and only pay for the one house and set of bills.

If he was living with her, in the same house, and not paying the mortgage and bills on his own place too, then I'd be more inclined to say fair enough, they are taking the piss, reporting is a good idea.

But whichever they are paying 2 sets of bills, then they aren't running a single household while claiming to be running 2.

THAT would be fraud. Pretending to be running 2 households but actually not.

But they ARE running 2 households, aren't they?

It is no different to him being her boyfriend. If she was seeing a new bloke, who had his own place on which he paid the bills, but he stayed at hers loads and they went out together, went on holiday together and he bought her gifts - would that be fraud? Or just a single mother, living in her own home, who happened to have a nice boyfriend?

OP - all you know is what she's told you. this may or may not be the truth, and that is why you should mind your own business!

Now - are you actually going to answer lots of people's questions and say whether or not you intend to report this woman?

Also - I'm sure your friend would been really pleased that you've posted lots of personal info about her on the internet!

gawd knows what the OP would have made of my situation over the last 2yrs

Married livig together - shared finances.

Seperated living in different houses, me claiming as single parent

6 months "back together" with him - but still maintaining seperate households. I paid my bills, he paid (or rather he didn't as he was unemployed and skint) his bills, I sometimes stayed with him wit the DS's, he sometimes stayed with me and the DS's. Then we start to live LIKE A MARRIED COUPLE..........ie we lived in the same house and shared the bills and running of the ONE house together, it was "our" house.

Now back to seperated, but currently joint finances........

You spiteful, horrible person. What would you get out of telling on her? If that's the kind of thing you do for entertainment, that's worrying! Stop with all the 'I don't know what to do'. Stop acting like it has anything to do with you. You are a busybody, what goes on in other peoples lives has nothing to do with you, and you would have to pay taxes anyway so stop being bitter and twisted. You need to take a good look at yourself if this is what you do for excitment.

[wonders how this thread will go, now people have cracked open the vino collapso]

who needs enemies with friends like you!

FFS!!

£200 a month tax credits? Are you really that petty that this bothers you??? Really?

You need to find something to occupy your mind lady.

We get tax credits, one house, one family - £500 a month, does that piss you off?

GET a life, you know, your own one and stop poking yours into other peoples business - you could cause a lot of damage

sheesh lucy is that all - we get CTC (£476 every 4 weeks, but would go up to £575 in April should I still be living here then), and ESA £100 a week) and council tax benefit £16 a week - so nerrrrrr

We dont get any other benefits as we are not entitled to them. We are probably not entitled to the CTC now actually as DPs business has picked up, its on my to do list to get onto the tax credits people and tell them because i dont want to have to pay a shed load back when i file the tax return for this year.