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Birth Certificate Issues

2 replies

confuddledDOTcom · 08/02/2015 12:15

Someone I know was tried for benefit fraud last week and found not guilty. Basically saying that she had moved her partner in before she said she had.

During her partners interview with the fraud officers they tried to threaten him that if they found that they hadn't done it they would either go after his parents (basically he works out of the area 6-8 months a year and they'd claimed benefits at one point whilst he'd been away, he doesn't always go back to their house when he's home could be her parents, friends or even girlfriends, and he doesn't contribute so they don't class him as living there) or get them done for lying on the birth certificates which is what I'm asking about now.

When they registered the birth of their children they used her address as partly he didn't really have a home and partly that being from a broken home himself he didn't want to look like they weren't together if the children looked back at them later on. This was the extent of the evidence against them. They're now worried that that threat will be carried out and they'll get reported. Their thinking was that all the information in it had been correct and it was still an address he could be contacted via (not like he'd put Buck House). They've just been through an 18 month nightmare and hoping that it's over now but this is still on their mind. can anyone help?

OP posts:
thatstoast · 08/02/2015 12:27

I know you can be fined for giving false info on a birth certificate but I always assumed the real issue surrounded paternity. I can't imagine why any authorities would be interested in fining someone for an incorrect address. Is no fixed abode a valid option on birth certificates? I don't know what would've been the 'correct' action for him at that point.

So have DWP actually referred this to someone? It sounds like empty threats to me.

confuddledDOTcom · 08/02/2015 22:48

Yeah as far as they were concerned the important information had been on and accurate, it was a valid address, as much as any at that point when even the census has him in a hotel.

As far as they know so far it hasn't got anywhere and it did sound like an empty threat, admit to benefit fraud or we'll do you on a different fraud kind of thing.

I've spoken to a family social worker who said that the registrars office would never afford to go after everyone who lies on birth certificates!

I think they're just so stressed from so long going through this unfairly that the idea of another possible investigation is making it hard to move on.

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