Universal Credit Fraud

[shockjockingtruth]

I'm aware of someone (not me!!) who has claimed UC for 3 years whilst having in excess of £30k savings. The threshold is £16k savings for UC. I think they receive @ £800 per month.

They definitely know they should not be claiming.

What proportion of fraud cases like this do DWP discover without being tipped off? Is it just random checks?

Also what is the likely punishment? I have read charts which give starting point suggestions eg custodial sentence and fine but I wondered in reality what the most likely outcome is.

You could always mind your own business? DWP will find out eventually without nosy Nigel being a tell tale tit.

Loads of people call the benefit fraud line, that’s what it’s for. No issues. Why should tax payers pay for cheats and frauds? 🤷🏽‍♀️

Are you saying I am not allowed to be curious about how the system works?

Yes, that would be fraud... but it is up to you to report it or not.

I know it is fraud. I really wanted to know if she will ever be likely to be caught organically without being shopped. If so what is the likely punishment versus what it says online.

Not likely to be caught, even if shopped.

That's a charming attitude.

How come?

The DWP do carry out random checks. There are countless threads on here about people having to provide bank statements for all their accounts, and they are people that have been on UC for years.
So the person you know may get caught that way.
There was talk about the DWP being able to monitor bank accounts to see if the capital ever went over £6k, but I think that fizzled out (and rightly so).

I've heard they do random checks sometimes where they ask for your bank statements so could find out through that i suppose

Report it.

Ignore the person upthread who is happy with committing or ignoring benefit fraud themselves.

So your happy to pay tax to support benefit frauds?
Such a defensive post made me wonder if your also claiming something you shouldn't be.

Report it OP, i'm sick of numerous posts on here with people defending benefit fraud by saying mind your own business whilst the country is on its arse!

I'm not defending benefit fraud, but over 80% of calls they receive are either inaccurate or malicious. Unless the OP can categorically say without a shadow of a doubt said person has X amount of savings while claiming X amount of UC then yes they should mind their own business.

It's difficult enough for people trying to get by & cope day to day. Imagine being investigated by DWP because someone thought they knew best about your living/financial/business situation & got it completely wrong; It happened to a friend of mine & she was in bits for weeks. Turned out to be a malicious caller, it wasn't savings it was a report made that she had a partner living with her in a property she had only just been handed the keys for (she was fleeing domestic abuse) None of it made any sense & to this day we have no idea who it was.

I just think unless you have hard evidence then you should stay out of peoples lives, you don't know the ins and outs. We as a society are actively encouraged to 'tell on each other' rather than looking up and seeing the bigger problem, which are those in charge. There are these ultra wealthy politicians doing anything & everything they can do avoid paying taxes, yet Karen down the road can't sell a T Shirt on vinted without Mr Taxman snooping.

Some of you really have no fucking clue.

Benefit Fraud is a drop in the ocean, and if you are really concerned about the state of UK finances, and what tax is spent on, then there are far bigger fish to fry.

Seems DWP have realised that by far the biggest motivating factor for reporting suspected fraud is envy and spite, hence why they encourage free-for-all use of dobbing-in lines, even where and when it's completely speculative and/or without foundation.

I work for a bank and it’s becoming really common forthe DWP to request statements of all someone’s accounts.

But on here benefit fraud is practically encouraged so you’re unlikely to get a positive response.

@AnywhereAnyoneAnyTime do they need the claimant's permission to access their bank accounts?

Ah, so DWP snooping on bank accounts is a thing now?

@Nastyaa knows the score

They don’t access the accounts, they start a review and then the claimant is required to provide the statements.

It’s the claimant who provides the statements, in the same way that you would prove income/assets if you’re applying for credit/to rent a house etc.

This. People like Jimmy Carr and Lewis Hamilton could pay for a million people with slightly high savings on UC.

It was in the news a while back that the DWP were going to be granted permission to access claimants bank accounts without consent.
I am not sure if it happened in the end TBH.

DWP is linked to HMRC very closely so they can look and see whatever they want about people's finances. The fact is they don't check everyone, they haven't the manpower. I've no idea how likely it would be that they get caught, but if I were them I'd be very worried and feel like I was constantly on edge.
They would be made to pay back all the UC they claimed while having over 16k. They may also indeed be prosecuted and possibly imprisoned. I'd say custodial is fairly unlikely but not impossible.
I personally wouldn't tell on someone, unless they were a really horrible person who had wronged me badly. But that doesn't mean I approve of fraud.

I don't begrudge well-off people their money, after all, you're worth exactly what someone is willing to pay you.

What does annoy me is the way that people have been conditioned to think that anyone who has 1p more than they do is either "at it", has somehow acquired their "wealth" by dishonesty, or has otherwise somehow gamed the system to everyone else's net loss.

It's classic divide and conquer and only benefits the real leeches, i.e. the already hideously wealthy who dodge billions in tax and control the narrative to paint marginally less skint people as the enemy of skint people everywhere.

Individuals using the "why should taxpayers" thing is risible. For starters, nobody loses out on a benefit payment because someone else is playing the system. Fraud is a drop in the ocean, and even if it ended tomorrow it wouldn't make the blindest bit of difference to the UK's public finance black hole. The government isn't going to suddenly take that saving and feed it back into the "pot", which is another nonsensical point that is often repeated. There is no "pot" to begin with. Welfare, like all government spending, doesn't function like a household budget where a few pennies saved here and there are later spent on some unplanned luxury.

The thirst for cliping on people playing the system would almost be understandable if the people ranting about "tax" were actually given a personal tax rebate for every fraudster they helped catch, but as it is, is clearly driven by nothing other than completely misguided spite and envy.