Mattress Cash

[GetsPostByOwl]

Let's say this is purely hypothetical.

Okay. So imagine an uncle finally counting up the cash he's been saving for about 30 years under his mattress. Housing Benefit/Dole been claimed for the past 15 years MINIMUM. Both Uncle and Aunt been some small cash in hand work. Uncle doesn't leave the house otherwise and spends nothing. Bills always been paid from dole/pension and Aunts cash in hand.

Total is about £35K.

Aunt whacks £10K in one bank account and opens another with another bank in order to put £20K in that.

It's going to be noticed, right? I'm assuming worst case scenario would be demands from tax man and repayment of benefits for... well forever?

The hypothetical aunt and uncle refuse point blank to seek any advice, not even CAB.

They would be better to purchase something with the cash and keep until they wish to free the money up again, it might be easier to believe that the purchased item has increased in value over the years. No idea what to buy though!

It's astonishing how many people are offering solutions to help continue benefit fraud when usually (& q rightly) people pile onto it with pitchforks

I thought I read somewhere that crooks launder money through betting shops?
I'm not sure how that works cos surely the betting shop takes more off you than the tax man?

Funnily enough I agree with you Jackie!

It's astonishing how many people are offering solutions to help continue benefit fraud when usually (& q rightly) people pile onto it with pitchforks

This must be good benefit fraud then ....

I'm not sure how that works cos surely the betting shop takes more off you than the tax man?

10%, no ?

My step-grandma has had lots of issues with HMRC over the last year or so for slightly similar issues.

Her and grandad claimed pension and were quite poor. Grandad died and afterwards life insurance and policies paid out. Grandma contacted HMRC straight away to cancel benefits but something went wrong. They contacts her because they'd seen her bank accounts with these large sums of money in them.

I didn't really believe they could see your bank accounts but they obviously can. She's had loads of trouble since then, luckily it's clerical errors and she's not actually in trouble.

Disability benefits aren't means tested and the claimant can still work.
Surely all UK benefits are paid by the authorities straight into the claimants bank account. It sounds like the relatives have subsequently drawn the full amount from their nominated bank in cash whenever it's been paid in and "spent". What is going to be difficult to prove is because they have converted it to cash is where that cash came from in the first place.
If they have contents insurance then they were likely not have been insured for large sums of money kept in the house.

No, disability benefits aren’t means tested but housing benefit is. Every so often they will receive something from the LA asking them to complete forms for their housing benefit. On said form you have to list any income you receive and all bank accounts and the amount in them at the time of filling the forms in. These are then cross checked with information that they and other agencies hold against you. If they discover the ‘hidden’ money they would be invited to an interview under caution. Depending on the amount that has been paid when they were not entitled to claim they may be prosecuted, where I live the cut off is £2k, anything over that and they will automatically be prosecuted.

@JackieReacher I'm of the same thinking. We pay a lot of tax out of our wages and it does grate somewhat that people are taking money out of the pot when they don't need and aren't legally entitled to it. Uncle only did CIH jobs to get out of the house a bit. The cash was just dumped "under a mattress!" They're very much they type who wouldn't dream of leaving an entitlement unclaimed. Including any small jobs around the house. They would call out the HA to do even the tiniest of repairs because "that's what they're there for!"

I do worry about the fallout from this. I know it'll be a huge mess and it'll be down to me to fix it all.

What are they so concerned about having more money for if they don't spend it? The only situation I can imagine you having to sort it is if you are executor and it somehow comes to light when you're winding up the estate? The best thing to suggest is they immediately stop any means tested benefits and start spending their cash on what the benefits currently cover

So they have £17500 each. I think if you have £16k you don't get benefits. I believe if you have cars even if worth £100k that is not counted for benefits which has always struck me as utterly ridiculous. So many of our neighbours (who don't claim a penny of benefits) have up to £100k of Indian gold at home the police have had to put leaflets through all doors about burglars trying to steal it.

Basically they want to launder money but I am not sure they have had enough in cash to deny them benefits anyway once it is divided by two. It is almost under the £16k each. So there may be no crime of any kind. I just watched US series on netflix - fiction - about a man who had to launder money after being blackmailed. If they are elderly and might die soon they could do what I am doing now - give the money away to relatives (lawfully and legitimately) to reduce inheritance tax when I die.

They are a couple so classed as joint for housing and depending what they claim, it could be other benefits. So it isn’t £17,500 and just above the cut off it’s £35,000 - £19,000 above the cut off.

www.gov.uk/housing-benefit/eligibility

If they have a credit card they could in theory pay some money on the credit card so it's actually over the limit of the card and then t then use the money to buy stuff

No idea If it would work but I did see it in a film once 😂

They could also get traveller cheques in small amounts a couple of thousand pounds and hold on to them

Bum, thanks. I just had that £16k cut off in my head and you are quite right that benefits would lump a couple (assuming they live together etc) together.

The TV programme I watched (he was forced to launder drug money) he hid about US$1m behind the walls in the house and then he looked for cash rich businesses like bars and clubs which could then declare to the tax authorities more cash than they actually made that could not be proven either way. However it would be a lot simpler and better for us who pay a lot of tax if they just stopped their benefits, used the money to live on instead of living off my taxes and then once the money was used up went back on benefits again or even got a job.

Benefits are a bit of a touchy subject with me. Both me & DH worked full time and when the DC came long he would work days and I would work evenings and weekends and I then changed to 12hr night shifts at the weekend. Unfortunately I became ill and can no longer work and DH is now my carer and so, we now live on benefits.

I had to become a bit of an expert around them and I get quite touchy on posts such as these. We have been reported for benefit fraud, more than once, but have been cleared each and every time, still doesn’t stop them reporting us!

Anyway, sorry OP I went on a bit of a tangent there

They could always invest in BitCoin

They have been committing benefit fraud since the date on which they first had over £6000. They should have had no means tested benefits since the date on which they first had £16000.

There is an ongoing duty to declare savings and changes in circumstances. They need to declare the bank accounts now.

And obviously the cash in hand should have been declared.

So in summary. Clear benefit fraud. And they should stop claiming now.