Declaring benefit fraud please please help

[sadmum321]

I have been reading posts on here for the last few days over people being caught for benefit fraud but none of the cases I have read can I relate to.

Basically I ended up on full benefits a couple of years ago (never been on benefits in my life) because I had a breakdown due to domestic violence.
I found the benefit system horrendous and ended up having CAB and MIND help me apply for housing benefit, council tax benefit, tax credits and also got ESA and DLA lower rate. It took months for these benefits to be put into place and I had to borrow off friends and family to put food on the table as I have 3 children.
I was completely doped up on all sorts of antidepressants. A year ago DLA asked me to go into an interview as I had been on it a year and for them to carry it on they needed to see me. Basically I managed to go for the interview shook and cried all the way through it and 2 weeks later got a letter saying they didnt feel my condition of depression qualified for DLA so it stopped.

I really found it hard to cope without this money so pushed myself into finding part time work.
I found a part time job 8mths ago for 25hrs a week min wage, I didnt feel ready to do this amount of hours but had been looking for months and it was the only job that came up and the only job where the boss agreed to give me a trial basis as he was aware of my illness.
Because I was not sure how I would cope and because of past difficulties in obtaining benefits I thought I would give it a trial period of a couple of months before I declared it.
8months on I still havent declared it and it has been stressing me out as I want to come clean. I am also currently undergoing investigations at the hospital for a suspected tumour as I have suffered other illnesses this year. I have also found the job I have been doing very stressful and its put my children under pressure as I have to work til 7pm every night and my children are on their own (my eldest is 15 so legally ok to look after my youngest) I also find my boss it rather horrid, not letting me have any holidays and making crude remarks so I have become very stressed at work and really need to leave.
I know I should have informed benefits immediately and know I would not be entitled to ESA so if I calculate what I have got in ESA over 8mths that itself comes to nearly £5,000 so god knows what the total amount will be once tax credits, housing and council tax benefit has been calculated, Im presuming around £10,000
What I would like to know is if I come forward and confess will they be kinder to me ie not send me to jail, not take me to court and hopfully just fine me and come to a repayment schedule to pay the money back, or will they treat me as they do people they catch out themselves?
Has anyone on here actually confessed to benefit fraud without actually being caught?
Im getting so much conflicting advise as other friends has said just give up the job and leave and dont declare to benefits as they are thinking because I havent been called in by benefits that I havenet been checked, but I cant live with this dishonest and cant risk just leaving my job and pretending it never happened as Im sure benefits will find out one way or another.
Im racked with guilt and feel terrible with what I have done but it was just one of those things where you keep thinking I will tell them next month or the next month and each month something happened and I had money to pay out and debts to try and clear and then things went bad at work so knew I needed to look at leaving.
I am sorry to you all for committing this crime and I would just like some advise on what to do. I have tried ringing CAB but their phone lines are full and I cant get to talk to anyone.
Once again I am so sorry and Im so ill with all this and worrying whether my MRI scans are going to show up a tumour which I am terrified about.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

It won't go down well here as everyone is whiter than white

Who said they were

but you'd be stupid to hand yourself over to DWP for this.

So you are advocating the OP continues to commit fraud.

I think most people here have no idea what the DWP are actually like.

Actually I do. Doesn't mean continuing to do something classed as illegal is ok.

I would play dumb. I'd say I was confused and later realised I wasn't entitled. They will make you pay it bk but you won't go to prison

It's simple: You have to declare, and offer to pay back. I think you can pay very small amounts over a long period of time.

I've just taken a fixed term job, sent a letter to come off my ESA, and the last payment still went in. However, I've set it to one side, have proof I sent the letter (I can't make a phone call), and it will be there ready to pay back. If I receive another payment, then I'll get my partner to call and we'll sort it out (phoning is a nightmare as they always want to speak to me and I just can't use a phone). Point is, the money is there as I'm expecting to be asked for it back.

You WILL get caught, presumably by cross-matching with NI/TAX and the benefits database. Not worth the stress.

As a starting point, why not start to gather some facts together so you have all the dates, amounts and timeframes re: your employment and the dates up until when when you believe you were no longer eligible - try to get it clear in your mind, while you are (relatively) calm and not under the duress of an interview.

You've captured a lot of the information in this thread, just keep a file including bank statements, wage slips, any documentation you have received about your benefits.

It will put you back in the driving seat as regards having info at your fingertips.

Massive hug it's a terrible situation you are in. I hope things become better for you and your DC x

I would play dumb. I'd say I was confused and later realised I wasn't entitled. They will make you pay it bk but you won't go to prison

Ignorance is no defence in law. Please don't act dumb, OP, you are far more likely to be viewed favourably if you organise your thinking and gather the information ready to cooperate proactively. You don't need to play dumb to avoid prison. You need to be strong for your DCs sakes, and they won't just throw a sentence at you without taking account of your family circumstances.

You sound a decent person. Please ignore the advice not to be. And sodding sparkly tatmas is utterly irrelevant!!

The quicker you own up, deal with this, the better for you.

If you leave it, it will all become a lot bigger.

Don't confess anything.

See a GP/Consultant and find an advice group who will advocate with you, one that has a legal specialist.

If you are ill enough to be collapsing you are too ill to confess things that will potentially leave you with a criminal record.

Thank you, there have been some lovely messages on here and I deserve what I get. I'm guessing there is not much for me to gather together as I have a contract stating the day I started and wage slips and bank statements as I didn't try and hide anything.
I will have to leave my job because it's making me so ill and the children, also my boss has been terrible and won't let me take holiday, wouldn't let me leave early for my sons birthday, has given me a verbal warning for time off sick, wont negotiate on me starting and finished earlier and won't consider reducing my hours as I can't cope, to top it all he keeps asking questions on my personal life and about sex he also made the comment that once married I should stay married and domestic violence is all in a women's head :-(

The reality is never as bad as what you worry it will be.

The stress of this is probably making your health worse. You might find that you cope much better with your job/life when you don't have this hanging over you.

Tell them. Agree a repayment plan.

Then start looking for a new job.

I didn't tell her to continue. I told her to quit her shitty job. Then she wouldn't be committing fraud.

I didn't tell her to continue. I told her to quit her shitty job. Then she wouldn't be committing fraud

It doesn't cancel out the fraud that she has committed; though, nor the worry of being found out.

OP should leave the crap job, but also needs to come clean and fix this now. It's irresponsible to suggest otherwise to someone so clearly at the edge.

Excuse the interruption - we are looking at this thread as we are concerned about the OP.

Thanks to all of you for posting your advice and support

Once again thank you all for your messages of support and encouragement. I will make some phone calls today to CAB/MIND I know they are going to be busy but think getting advise and maybe some help from them first is my best option.
Either way declaring (which is what I'm going to do) is still going to cause me much stress and financial difficulties as I was struggling making ends meet (it's hard with 3 kids and no financial support from their father) I just don't know how we will manage when I'm fined and a repayment plan of maybe £100+ is put into place. So even by accepting my wrong doing it's not going to relieve the overwhelming stress I am feeling and when I had my MRI scans yesterday I collapsed again with bp of 240/175 and had to stay in until it came down a bit and they released me when it was 204/147, I'm on 4 different bp tablets but when I'm stressed it just fires my bp back up and I feel so ill with it. That is what the investigations are about as the specialist is looking for a tumour on my adrenal gland or kidneys. I should have never gone back to work as been ill with high bp for 2yrs now which has taken all this time to get under a specialist in a hospital.
I'm very frightened about all this because if the children's father finds out god knows what trouble he is going to cause as I have only just finished my court cases with him for DV so he is going to love this :-(

You're assuming a repayment plan will be unaffordable and unmanageable. But that's not likely to be the case if you get the right help in negotiating repayments. You really need expert support. You aren't the first person to be in this situation, you won't be the last, and help is available.

And with dc, doing a part time minimum wage job, you'll have had an entitlement to some benefits anyway. An advisor can help work out what the actual overpayment is.

Bless you altouchedout that's very kind. I have always been a negative thinking person I'm afraid and after the years of hell I went through with DV and courts i remain negative. For 3yrs I asked the courts to carry out a drug test on my husband as I was concerned for my children's safety as a couple of accidents happened whilst in their fathers care which resulted in me taking them to a&he bit courts refused to do a drug test because he said I was lying. Eventually the beginning of this year I had a new legal aid solicitor and a different judge who did insist on a drug text, my ex refused but ended up having to do one which proved everything I had been saying, he tested high levels on one substance and lower levels in another. It made no difference to the contact as all they put in was for him to refrain from drugs 48hrs before contact and during :-(
Also with the benefits when I had my breakdown it took them months to get me into benefits (I got into debt during this time trying to pay household bills and provide for the children) I did get help from mind who chased up benefits and got me on ESA and DLA and I was coping and hoping in a bit of time I could try and get myself better and get the help I needed for depression and anxiety, but DLA finished after a year and to reclaim I had to go for an interview, my circumstance and medication had not changed so my claim was exactly as it was the previous year and I cried throughout the interview. A few weeks later I had a letter saying I wasn't entitled to DLA anymore. That's when I think I started to go down hill again and started panicking as I thought if I have now been rejected for DLA I new my ESA was coming up for renewal early ne t year so thought to myself they are going to take me off that as well, hence the reason I went and found a part time job that I wasn't really ready for and I guess my thought process had got all twisted again as I was panicking so went and made this big mistake :-(
The other struggle I have is with HB where I live they calculate HB under a different county to the county I live in so give £630 for a 3bed house. In the county they calculate the HB on you can get a 3bed for around £600/£700 a month private rent, in the county i live in a 3 bed private rent is £850/£900, also in the county I live in housing benefit for a 3 bed is £820. As I could get a council house i had to go into private rent when I left my abusive husband I was lucky to get the cheapest private rent and pay £775 a month so get £639 towards that and have to make up the rest from my other benefits. Other people I know in my town who are in benefits are in a council house and a council house rent here is anything from £550-£700 a month so most people I know get all their rent paid when I had to find a further £136 out of other benefits to pay my rent which just made living on benefits a little harder for me and I don't get any CSA from my children's father as he works cash in hand and gets away with it.
I know this still isn't a reason for what I have done I suppose I just wanted to explain a bit more about my fears and lack of trust/help in the benefit situation when it comes to depression/anxiety as it seems more and more that they are not taking these conditions as an illness anymore.

I think I would have a different story to tell if DLA had just renewed my benefit for one more year so I could continue to get the support I was getting from MIND and other support groups and then would have been in a better position with better advise to decide whether I was capable of getting back to work. When my DLA was stopped I couldn't afford the bus fares to go to the MIND groups and the other support groups and courses I was invited on and that's when I started to fall back into my isolation and depression which obviously I then go and make uniformed and stupid mistakes :-(

I have also listened to what you have all kindly said and a friend has just sat with me and done a comparison on the benefit calculator to what benefits I would have been entitled to if I had declared my 25hrs at min wage and there is about a £1000 difference but then obviously the ESA benefit that I would not have been entitled to. So she worked out what I have been over paid in ESA and what I should have received in housing/council tax benefit along with tax credits (which like someone advised me I would have been entitled to working tax credits) and in total she thinks I have been over paid around £3500. I know there will be fines on top of that which I'm averaging to be around a £1000 do guessing the total I need to pay back will be around £4500 which if they will kindly accept repayments over 36mths will be around £125 a month which will be s terrible struggle but I have to do it. I just hope they won't rip me to pieces and make an example of me and take me to court where I could risk community service or prison. So I hope I'm doing the right thing by declaring. There is so much conflicting information on the internet as I have read stories of people doing benefit fraud for over £10k and getting away with a fine and repayments but then I have read stories with people owing less then that and going to prison!

I have yet to come across a situation where someone has actually handed themselves in (like I want to do) without being caught first? Would have been a bit more reassuring to see what the situation is when people confess before being caught but can't find anything like that.
Once again thank you all for the kind words and the understanding, I really am not a bad person and have never done anything wring in my life and have always been the kind of person who helps others so I am finding this all rather difficult :-( xx

Op it doesn't work as to what u would have been entitled to anyway. I was entitled to the exact same amount of tax credits with my ex as I was a single parent. He left and I didn't realise I had to change my claim. Genuine mistake as it was no diff the amount. I had to repay back 3 months worth even though I was entitled as a single parent. It wasn't classed as benefit fraud as it wasnt. It was a genuine mistake as I wasnt very clued up bk then.

You won't goto prison as your handing yourself in. Custodial sentences only happen if it goes to court. My sister was caught out for fraud but admitted it so it didn't goto court. She had a fine and to repay anything claimed.

I've been with several people who have handed themselves in. And several who got caught. The first get much better treatment!

You may be able to pay back over 5/6 years if you need too. They'll be more reasonable the earlier you speak to them, though.

It is very unusual to be taken to court unless you're caught; and the amounts involved are huge; and they believe you intended to defraud. If you hand yourself in, this is likely to be a caution and fines.

Good luck.

Bauble a single parent claim is different to wrong income claim, so hopefully the op would not need to repay tax credits.

Op, either ring them or go into an office and tell them. They will know from your NInsurance.
Please tell them. They are not monsters. My friend got caught this way.
Don't give up your job.
Tell them. Someone else will tell if you don't and the tax people will tell them anyway.
If you go to them your self you will definitely not go to jail. They will sort out what benefits you are entitled to and put a repayment plan in place. They did this to my friend but, because she did not report it herself they took her to court for fraud. Don't wait and get caught.

Once again thank you all for not judging me and don't worry I am declaring myself to benefits as it's the right thing to do and I'm ashamed of myself and couldn't live with myself. I expect it will be a long drawn out process and I will let you know what happens but I expect it will be a few weeks before they call me in or start the balls of punishment rolling :-(
Hopefully once it's all sorted I will be able to post on here and reassure and encourage others to declare xx

Seven the op will have to pay them back, course she will. If she's claimed them under the impression she wasn't working then her claim wasn't correct. I doubt she will get into any trouble with tax credits though, they are pretty good and repayments can be as low as £2.50 a week. I was overpaid one year and they accepted that offer.

Bauble that's not how tax credits work with a false single parent claim the whole claim is void.
In the op's case the claim is correct but the income was false. Therefore they may or may not be an overpayment most likely not. Tax credits may issue a penalty for the false income but the entire claim will not be void.