do i stay in my damp cold expensive house or lie through my teeth so my kids can have a nice home??

[bellarose2011]

just looking for some advice really, i am a single mother to 2 DD, 10 months and 2yrs.
we currently live in a 3 bed semi detatched house, it has an old back boiler which makes the gas bills huge yet we are still always freezing. the garden is a vertical hill (literally!) there is mold growing on the kids bedroom wall. the double glazing doesn't work and there is puddles of water on all the windowsills every morning. i hate it!!
in the area i live there is a shortage of social housing and my name is on all council/housing association lists. my only hope is a house from an estate agents. but of course they won't accept DSS.
now i get my housing benefit paid to me so there is no reason i need to disclose this other than it being dishonest. but i know i would be a great tenant, i have never not paid my rent, i'm a clean freak and have no pets.
i have found a perfect house that i can afford and have the application form in front of me, i know i won't get it if i tell the truth. i have a friend who runs her own business and would say i worked for her. i just don't know what to do??
the eatate agents use MARAS, will my bank tell them where my funds come from?

OP please take the advice about improving things in your current house. Even if you do lie, which I don't think you should, you might not get this house as it is competitive in your area.

DudeIamSo This is a quick view of what will happen on under occupation and HB, the full form is a PDF download which if you need to see you can download from here. This was last updated on the 20th and will be in place by April.

docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:CpuZ2T-s8o4J:www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN06272.pdf+new+HB+guidelines+on+rooms&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjappGtQsmaixI3bjwLNDqJNHXKeMyjZYf0y2TLhVrybQ7jTnUP9mZZXvzl7pmxKYlexq7i0N3P7nRbgXKPVLqBZ_5Ui_1Or9qFiM0W33vp99WGCC8oGqvgr8nzUl2O1lpAK3ra&sig=AHIEtbTAOUOCyWTpRUpiaxcIWGnuSen3jg

As a former landlord, I simply would not take on a tenant who was not working. I would ask for references from place of work, and from landlord.

Incidentally, when we had to rent a house last year, the estate agents checks were very thorough. Because we are self employed (run our own business) the work reference was sent to our accountant, who had to confirm we could afford to pay the rent and the deposit. The estate agents also wanted to see 3 months worth of bank statement to verify the absence of benefits and that salaries were paid in to our accounts.

I am shocked that your friend who owns a business is so keen to be dishonest. I fear there is a lot of dishonesty in your circle, op.

the benefits system is not fair, what is happening to expat is horrendouse.
if the socail said to me if i put my kids in childcare and went to work any body is expats position would get the support they need i would do it in a second, i really would.
unfortunaty it just doesn't work like that.
i don't feel i am owed anything by anyone. i am just willing to take advantage of the fact that i can claim benefits and stay at home for a bit because i think my kids need it. they experienced months of fighting, violence and me crying all the time. my baby was born into a warzone, my toddler lost her dad who she adored.
so im meant to take them from that the immeidiatly put them in nursery?
ive paid taxes for years, ive paid for other people to stay at home with there kids.
and no there dad is not useless. he is a self employed builder who does 14hr days of back breaking work, the building industry is fucked so the work comes and goes.
unfortunatly when me and my ex worked for years we never earned anywhere near enough to mean that when i left i could demand 350,000 to walk away with.
it must seem very simple to someone who has got that kind of money behind them.

and i have know exactly what my next step is, me and my mum are starting our own business. she is taking a course on business and accounting.
i will be off benefits by the middle of next year.
i don't have any family who can help with child care now, they all work.
the business we are starting will mean that my hrs a flexible and i can fit it around kids being with there dad and my mum will have given her job up so will be able to help to.
they will be in nursey a few days a week maybe but they won't be babies then.

can everyone stop saying im putting the landlord at risk as i have said many times I AM GOING TO SAY I CLAIM A SMALL AMOUNT OF HB BECAUSE I WORK PART TIME. THEREFOR IF IT IS A PROBLEM WITH THERE INSURANCE THEY WILL KNOW.

yes there is dishonesty in my circle because when you are from the wrong side of the tracks you have to lie to get somewhere in life!

You seem to miss the point, a half lie is still a lie. The fact you lied on the form will invalidate his insurance.

Oh and being from the wrong side of the tracks is no reason to lie to get what you want without working for. I doubt you know anything about the wrong side of the tracks anyway, or a DV situation. I don't believe a word of this poor me sob story bullshit now, and yes people like you are the reason expat had to jump through so many hoops to get what she needed.

People like you are the reason the government is now dismantling the welfare state as we know it, piece by piece.

yeah and people like you are th reason there getting away with it.
they have managed to brainwash millions of people into to thinking that what wrong with this country is some people that are on benefits.
get real, look at the budgets and where the moneys really going.

expat has got every reason to be angry, she has been failed by the system.

but anyone that is sat in a house that is worth more money than a lot of people will ever see in there lives has no right to be angry beacause you have no idea what the hell there on about.

anyway im not going to post on here anymore, start a benefit bashing thread if thats what you all want to talk about.

or maybe a thread about how all people not at work should be left to starve.

or maybe a thread about how people shouldnt commit fraud in order to get a house because the LL wont take housing benefit

If we stand back the idea that if the state (ie hard working full time working mothers whose babies are in childcare) has decided it is not reasonable to spend its money on spare bed rooms that is not a bad concept. It may result in some hard cases but most of us would agree the principle is sound.

The issue of whether someone should forge a job in collusion with a friend who has a business to try to get a tenancy when housing benefit rules may be changing and the benefit may well be reduced to a point when she may well if her business does not take off not be able to pay the rent is the top of the thread. The issues are will she get found out and prosecuted for some kind of fraud and her friend also be prosecuted. Will the fraud be found out anyway as the agency may well do additional checks as well as using the system they use.

If you are in full time work the house is empty most of the day - much much less wear and tear. If you're in it all day long it does have more of an impact on the property.

The bottom line is we do not have the money to pay the benefits we have paid. However I have no faith this Government will make anything like the level of cuts we really need. They just tinker at the edges.

Oh fuck off bella, I live in a council flat with 2 dc and they share a room, I get some HB as I work part time and I have lived in places where it was not unusual to see needles on the street and trails of blood where people have been shot and stabbed. I have seen with my own eyes a boy shot to death in front of me at a rave, even now I live in a better area there was a stabbing last night.

I grew up in care and I've had 2 dc by the time I was 20 and claimed full benefits till I was 20, I lived in a refuge because of a DV situation and had to claim benefits but I didn't sit on my arse when I came out of there and I still think you are a lying entitled lazy bitch and you are whats wrong with this country.

so brandy your saying people exactly like YOU are whats wrong with this country?
you are no different to me, ive had a lot of shit happen to me im my life which i wont go into because its no ones business.

if you claimed full benefits till you were 20 then you have claimed a hell of a lot more than me.

do you think that when you were a kid coming out of care you should have been left to fend for yourself?
surely you were given a council flat?
what would have happened if you hadn't of been able to claim benefits?
its beyond me how someone from your background could think the way you do.

how old was your youngest when you went back to work?

I claimed full benefits for 2 years and 3 months, I never lied to get things I wasn't entitled to I went to college while pregnent both time and straight back to college when they were 2 months old. I didn't lie to ge my council flat I was top of the list and priority.

You are lying to get something you don't actually need, you are putting other people inc your dc in the shit for when it gets found out. I have and I say this very smugly always put my dc first through everything and everyone and I work my arse off putting food in their bellys and keeping a roof over their head, maybe you should try the same.

well you have recieved a lot more benefits then i ever have.
not i that i think you shouldn't have but you are not in a position to have a go at anyone else for being on benefits.
i have paid for you to go to college and get a council flat as i have worked most of my life.
do i sit here resenting it?
no i live my life and let others live theres however they think is best for them and there kids.
so get of your (smug) high horse

Im really confused
you say you are coming off benefits in the next few months to start a business?
if thats the case, why on earth are you not waiting until then to move?

Then you wont have to lie

brandy didnt lie about it though did she?

its not the fact you claim benefits and then want a better place to live so lie about your situation rather than doing something.

You just don't comprehend what your doing is wrong do you? My teenage situation was nothing like you an adult is doing.

I hope someone you know feels like this thread does about you and grasses you up.

because this house is just unbearable, it was ok untill the freezing weather kicked in.
we are always cold and then i got a 182 gas bill for 42 days which i can't afford.
i would happily live in a groundfloor flat but there arn't many were i live,
TBH this house is about the size of a 2bed flat.

this morning i woke up and the walls in my bedroom are actually wet.
i have contacted lanlord who is popping in tommorow. but i can't make them buy a new boiler so the bills will always be huge.

the house i want i mean not the one im in

but they have to maintain the property.

if the boiler is broken or infective they have to deal with it.

If theres damp etc they have to deal with it.

i don't spout about my business so no one will know to grass me up.
also i don't know what kind of council estate you live on but where i come from someone who grassed a single mother up and got her evicted would be spat at in the street.

the boiler isn't broken or ineffective, it works there are just very expensive to run.
they are not efficent like modern ones.
it was put in when gas was cheap.
i will show them the damp.

ok so im pretty sure the landlord has to deal with things like damp and mould.

It sounds like you have a plan to work which fits in around your children etc., Is there no way you could consider waiting until you come off benefits and renting a house then?
At least then you will be able to be honest, you will know that you have done everything properly and no one can say anything to you.

Obviously I dont know about your estate agent but I do know a lot of agencies require bank statements as proof of income anyway, if at some point they ask you for that and you have lied its just going to make it harder for you in future.
And if you do get evicted for breach of tenancy then wherever you try and rent again will want to talk to your landlord so again it will be impossible.

Leave the immorality issue to one side and think about the legal risks - moving and then the benefits rules changing so that you have too much space and lose a lot of HB and/or trying to move and the lie being found out. It just sounds a bit risky.

Yes, one of my children recently started renting and they had to show bank statements showing the salary going into the account each month.