OMG Have I done a terrible thing! I'm Shaking

[Kidstrack2]

I have just shopped my sisters ex man into benefit fraud! Its a long story but I feel he has really deserved it! He undermines my family as we don't have a car and we don't go on many holidays, but thats because we are a low income family paying all our taxes for him to claim full benefits and work on the side! Oh I get soooo angry at him.

Isn't there always some sort of excuse though ????

good post caligula

Don't get me wrong I still see no problem with people earning a little cash in the hand! But the type of money he has earned over the years takes the biscuit. He totally abused the system big time and the best bit of all none of his 3 kids see any of the money! At one point 6yrs ago this man left my sis in the house with a newborn and an 11month old so he could work day and night shifts for a taxi company and then on other nights he would deliver chinese and yea you have guessed it my sis never seen any of the money he made, He bought a new car and the kids were not allowed in it incase they were sick over the seats!

There were meant to be quatation marks around "wrong" btw - because I don't see it as particularly so.

Message withdrawn

A totally reprehensible example I agree Kidstrack and I see why you did what you did. Do you have mixed feelings, tho - the thread title asks if you did a terrible thing?

what is it they say...'moneyis the root of all evil'. Yes there are varying degrees of fraud or attitude to it ( nervousness/cockiness etc) but, whilst this is not the case for everyone, sometimes ith the very poor it comes down to a matter of survival. If you ar3e a single mum on full benefits unable to work because you have no support or means to leave your child you may find it dang near impossible to survive on what the government says you van and i am not talking luxuries here just day to day. What about Prufrocks mothers cleaners case, if such a woman should find cash in hand here and there ironing etc is that not something we would all do if in a similar situation, theres nothuing i wouldn't do to provide for my child. Sometimes people get stuck in catch 22 situations. Before you start wondering if i am in this situation myself let me assure you that thankfully i have a wonderful partner and i am not but, while i am not condoning all fraudulant activity i am aware that in some cases with some individuals i could have taken a different path in life and be in there predicament and so i am in no way going to bve judgemental. As i said not excusing all fraudulant behaviours but just pointing out a little something to think about.

The irony is it always seems to be the people who somehow manage to buy themselves mansions and cars on benefits, who get away with it, while it's the desperate "earning an extra £20 a week because without it, the debts would get to leg-breaking levels" cases which get caught.

It actually amazes me when I hear about million pound drug dealers who get caught because of their benefit fraud. What is the matter with them?

sorry for all my spelling errors! have ds typing away at the same time!!

Also I think you have to look at the definition of fraud: if as a single mum you're on benefits, and your mum or aunt gives you £20 to go and buy your kid a new pair of shoes, you are supposed to report that, so that the DWP can take it off your benefits. Is there anyone in the country outside of the people who drafted that rule, who genuinely think that is reasonable?

Its true caligula! in my cynical eyes encouraging us all to shop our neighbours is just a smoke screen to hide the fact that the government aren't doing more to catch the big fish, they should be investing more money into this.

Yup, divide and rule!

Yeah at the time I felt I had done a terrible thing because it is something I would just never thought of doing, its just not me if you know what I mean. I felt shakey all that day. But Dp has reassured me I done the right thing. I would never do it again. This man just got to me a bit through my sis. I would def never shop someone for making a bit extra on the side say maybe up to 50pound a week! Some people depend on the little extra they make.

another good arguement caligula! I wonder how many of us on this website are receiving benefits and haven't reported a little money they were given by family/friends!

kidstrack2 i do understand where you are coming from. To be taunted in your face like you were the fool for working hard while he was amazing piles of money to shop/holiday with is just too cocky! ...was he giving your sister good money to care for his children?

Well thanks for the feedback Kidstrack I truly hope I never find myself in this kind of dilemma. Can't imagine what I would so if my little sis hooked up with someone like this - go round with a big stick prob, which makes reporting them seem very mild!

Yeah if we all did that we would have no child benefit left! When Dp and I were living seperately they wanted to cut 10pound off my childbenfit a week because I told them he never gave me money for ds but bought his nappies etc so they tallied it at 10pound a week until I appealed it. For goodness sake I was only 17 and he was 18.

Sister never seen a penny of his money even when they lived together. He has not as much as bought them a pair of shoes or jacket he wouldn't know which shop to go into unless it was a car showroom!

Ok ladies thanks for listning! I'm off to have some lunch and pick ds up from school!

I have shopped someone for benefit fraud, he was a lifestyle frauder. He ran his own business, yet claimed benefits, his dodgy businesses included smuggling girls into the country to work as escorts. He claimed benefits to avoid paying child maintenance to a friend of mine who was struggling to make ends meet on the £10 a month maintenance he paid her. It wasn't done out of spite, I had no axe to grind I just thought it was wrong. I have never told anyone however as I felt a bit uneasy doing it.

Like Edam i find this "grass" culture a bit worrying particularly when motivated by spite. I have been on benefits and I had to be over honest as I knew my ex and his family would have been more than happy to report me for having anything I wasn't entitled to, I even reported any money given to us as birthday presents! They thought I was completely bonkers at the local office.

I have known people who have done the odd job here and there earning the odd extra fiver here and there when on benfits and i don't really begrudge it. When I was married my husbands family who ran a multi million pound business managed to deny the state hundreds of thousands of pounds but that is OK because they wear nice clothes while doing it and are using the money to pay for an extra bentley rather than fags and alcahol.

I know of a single mother who was shopped for earning an extra twenty pound for packing crisp bags on a night shift in a local factory. Is this really such an awful crime?

Edam
Someone asked to me explain why I shopped someone - it was for benefit fraud - and I explained that international students who are not EU/EEA national and claim benefits are . . . benefits cheats, b/c they are not entitled to public funds. And isn't that what this thread is about?

This costs the British government £2b/year.

Twinset, you are allowed to earn up to 20pounds a week if you are on income support and claming child benefit! The single parent you know of must have been earning a little over it!Dept of Work and Pensions has explained to my sister that because she earned 34pound on a shift per week she has to pay back six lots of 14pounds as she had done 6 shifts.

I know you can earn £20 , she had agreed to do a shift paying her £20 and was then offered another, she said yes which then took her over her threshold. It was the one and only time she did it.