Caught for Fraud and arrested yesterday

[debbieb1980]

No excuses as I was caught red handed doing something I really should not have been doing.

I have been wrongly claiming whilst working due to a lot of money issues and now need to face the consequences of my actions.

My recent past caught up with me late yesterday evening when I was arrested at my workplace just before finishing my shift, I then had to go to the police station and have been in there til an hour or so ago.

Scared I will now end up in prison though if I do I know it is self inflicted, looking for any advice.

Frequency whilst to a certain extent I agree with you about benefits, 1000s of people live on benefits, in work and out of work have very little free money and have problems paying rent and bills and don't feel the need steal 12.5K, and would you be so understanding if the OP had stolen that money from your bank account? Would you have shrugged your shoulders and said, 'if the benefit system reflected the actual amount the OP needed to live on she wouldn't have had to steal from me , so that's ok she deserved the cash'

unemployment benefit should be the bare minimum

At the moment, it is less than that. I am not arguing for unemployed people to able to afford designer handbags, holidays and fancy cars but they should be able to afford food, gas, electric, a phone, an internet connection, clothing and to maintain their homes to a fair standard.

I'm on in-work benefits, supposedly better off than people on unemployment and I can't afford the above. I eat cheap, frozen crap and juggle heat vs my payg phone vs clothes for the kids. How someone on less than me would manage, I don't know. I am in awe of anyone who manages without resorting to cash in hand jobs on the side.

@Frequency

I'm not saying its easy. But if everyone treated the system as an emergency fall back instead of a way of life for some, then the government wouldn't keep cutting. They keep cutting it to try and force people off benefits and into work. It sucks for those who are really trying but can't get work, but there doesn't seem a better way until people stop stealing or choosing to live on benefits.

Really, I think there should be tax breaks and better council tax rates for companies who pay a good wage, so that people in employment don't need benefits to top up.

@Frequency

Also, completely off topic but I'm with Vodafone and do PAYG using their big value bundles. It's a rolling 30 day thing.
For £5, you get 100mb, 100 minutes, 250 texts. For £10 you get 1gb, 200 mins and unlimited texts.

Just top up the right amount and the bundles roll over, and you keep any unused stuff. Can get a sim at the supermarket.

There's probably better value ones out there, I don't know but just incase that's any use to you!

If there were enough jobs for everyone to work full time, I'd agree with you, Avasarala, but there aren't.

In some areas, it is all but impossible to find full time work. A family friend recently advertised a full time cleaning position. She had over 3000 applicants before she closed applications.

Small business and big corporations such as Tesco, prefer to offer part time work, so they have extra staff to call in to cover sickness (and also because they pay less tax/insurance/pension etc that way). They also demand that their staff be available 24/7 and not work elsewhere, making it impossible for the underemployed to become fully employed unless they are one of the lucky few who make it to management.

We need to stop blaming the people at the bottom for the failings of those at the top.

There is a huge problem with the benefit gap when someone who has been on benefits becomes employed.

I hope that if I were desperate I would get a couple of cleaning jobs, bar shifts as well as my day job rather than fiddle benefits.

@Frequency If benefits were set at a livable level, there'd be less fraud. As it, they're not. How anyone survives on unemployment or disability benefit long term is beyond me.

If unemployment benefits were set at a liveable level, why would anyone bother to find work? And then who would pay the taxes to support those who actually cannot work, due to ill health and disability? If I had enough money to live on without going to my just-above-NMW job every day, I'd far prefer to stay home and look after my house and kids.

Sorry wrong post, reported it!

This happened to my dsis, she said she wasn't working when she was.
her exdh was doing the claims but because she signed them she was liable.
She had a baby in SCBU got 18 months and was out in 12 months.
It was less than the OP has defrauded but at a time of national campaign for clamping down.
It depends on whether they want to make an example of you, as well as other offences, remorse. My dsis didn't have any other convictions, not even a parking ticket, was very sorry, and was a few k, not sure how much.
As much as I love her it was right for her to pay the price.

"Unemployment benefit should be the bare minimum"

Yes and that is what causes people to be dishonest in the first place, because people can't live on the pittance you think they should be paid.

Also I have worked since I left school 26 years. I've paid into the system. If I heaven forbid come out of work. Why should I be happy and greatful a sweaty £70 of "my own damn" money

If I had enough money to live on without going to my just-above-NMW job every day, I'd far prefer to stay home and look after my house and kids

Really? You'd live on the minimum required to live, go without holidays, days out and expensive birthday presents? You wouldn't aspire to more or want to teach your children to aspire to more? I find that sad. It's almost as saddening as the fact you'd rather families suffer with less than is needed to live because they haven't been able to find work.

Most people want to better themselves and those who don't often have good reasons such as a poor upbringing stemming from poverty.

How are you doing op?

Frequency why is is "sad" that not everyone aspires to the notion of greed? Some people appreciate the things in life that matter - health, family, time, nature - not everyone considers material gain to be paramount. What a very shallow view you hold.

Oh please, aspiring to achieve something with your life is not greedy.

I get really irritated by people who act as if wanting a bit of disposable income to have some fun with your one and only life is nothing but shallow greed. Money is important. It is not the most important thing in the world, but it's up there in the top few. Anyone who says it doesn't matter has never had to go without it. Worrying about not being able to pay your rent or mortgage, budgeting every last penny on food, deciding between heating or a square meal, walking around in shabby clothes, hearing all about incredible distant lands and never getting to see them, driving an unreliable banger or having your life restricted because you can't afford a car at all....none of this is fun, ffs, and wanting a bit more pleasure in your life than that doesn't make you some evil grasping dollar chaser.

As a famous milkman once said, there is no shame in being poor but there's no great honour either.

Worrying about not being able to pay your rent or mortgage, budgeting every last penny on food, deciding between heating or a square meal, walking around in shabby clothes, hearing all about incredible distant lands and never getting to see them, driving an unreliable banger or having your life restricted because you can't afford a car at all....none of this is fun, ffs, and wanting a bit more pleasure in your life than that doesn't make you some evil grasping dollar chaser

Precisely. Go and tell your child there'll be no tree this year, no present and no new Christmas outfit and then come back and tell me aspiring to earn more than is needed to pay essential bills and buy basic food is greedy.

While I wouldn't have the balls to commit benefit fraud myself, having lived on slightly more than people on unemployment benefit get, I understand why it is tempting and save my judgement for others more deserving of it.

I wonder, did the MP's caught pissing the "taxpayers money" away on duck houses face prison time?

some of you might be interested in universal income - I really hope this is something which takes off in Scotland

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/25/scotland-universal-basic-income-councils-pilot-scheme

Sounds like it could be a potential way to deal with the threat from automation, and the horrendous inequailty in our society, while at the same time giving people more choice about how to live their lives.

How do they fund a universal income?

What do we lose- healthcare, education, civic maintenance?

Or do we just tax high earners for every penny they have?

Communism does not work. Taking from the rich to give to the poor so everyone ends up with the same amount is not a fair system.

It's not communism, haha. Did you read the article?
It would replace benefits as well as the personal allowance.

The briefing is here (pdf at the bottom)
reformscotland.com/2017/12/basic-income-guarantee-nows-right-time-big-idea/

No, it wouldn't. Did you read the article?

They've suggested £5200 per year for every person. Not related to benefits.

They've said it will replace some in work benefits. But for unemployed people, single parents etc, a payment of £5200 is not enough to live on. They will still receive other benefits.

It will cost roughly £12-13 billion a year to fund this. They've suggested removing personal allowance, changing tax bands, and merging national insurance and income tax.

All of that is a fancy way of saying tax rises for high earners.

Just so everyone can be handed money for nothing.

I live in Scotland so yes, I am aware of the policy. I think you've misunderstood it but you are of course entitled to your opinion.

I also live in Scotland. For everyone saying "It's a great idea" there's someone saying "how can we afford it. Show us the sums and the implications on people who work hard and earn good money".

These sums have not been provided. The feasibility study hasn't finished yet. They havnt shown how they hell they can afford it without taking more money from high earners. Unless we lose something else, that's the only way.

This has been described many times as pandering to the extreme left. And they still havnt provided a detailed description of how the finances work.

So, you don't know how it will work. Because feasibility hasn't been completed. Costs and how to fund those costs havnt been worked out.

I will listen when they answer these questions. But id bet my house that it will result in tax rises.

Didn't you ever think about what would happen if you were found out op?
I think you've actually been treated very kindly on here for such a monumental fuck up.

@ParisUSM but who gets to decide what is enough to live on? Some out of work benefit claimants now can claim the equivalent of something like a £30k gross salary, and still say that's not enough to live on. Some out of work benefit claimants go on foreign holidays and drive new cars; our family can't afford that as we have a mortgage and bills to pay - if our boiler breaks or the roof is damaged the council does not come and repair it for free like those who are in social housing are entitled to. So one could argue that these benefit claimants are already receiving far more than is needed to live on, whereas workers who earn too much to claim top up benefits are actually in a far worse position because they are responsible for everything, with no safety net.