[Titanic99]

For a number of years I worked in the administration of Housing and Council Tax Benefit, during this time I came across various different ways of people trying to extract money from us in cases that stretched legislation to the limit.

I though I’d share five of my favourite examples with everyone and ask others for examples they have.

Not living in a property and claiming Benefit for it- This was a classic, the person claimed to be living in the property but we were aware that the property was screened, therefore in our opinion he couldn’t be living there. When interviewed he then preceded to explain to me how easy it is to get into screened properties, and that he was living there during the day.

Self Employed taxi drivers- I remember one person coming in for an interview, he was really proud of himself as he’d just got this job driving a taxi and he came in to tell me he’d be earning a £100 a week (long time ago). Unknown to him, we knew the firm and everyone else there earned £40 a week so after I concluded the interview I came back into our office and confidently predicted he’d be back in again in a few weeks telling us he wasn’t doing as well as expected and that he was only earning £40 a week. Sure enough, I was right.

Minimum wage- I remember interviewing a chap who worked in a pizza place who claimed to be only earning £1 an hour, it was just before the minimum wage came in so I remember advising him of this and that he’d have to tell us of the increase in his wages when it started. He then got difficult with me, telling me his employer wasn’t going to give him the minimum wage and that his wages would remain the same. He stopped his claim just after it came in.

Bingo winner spent £90k- I remember interviewing one young lass who won £90k at the Bingo, she came in and cancelled her claim as was correct, she then came back in around 6 months later to say that she wanted to claim again as she’d spent it all.

Child minders looking after each others kids- My recollection of this one is sketchy, it involved two child-minders who were friends and who claimed to look after the others children, they then claimed Tax Credit to make their income up.

In reality, the dodgy claims usually involve the following:

Living together as Husband and Wife
Spending Capital
Undeclared Capital
Not living in properties
Collusion with employers
Self-Employed
Non-Dependant children disappearing when they reached the age when they have to contribute to the household
Undeclared Income

Anyone got any good examples to share!!!

[satman2222]

Some good tips there for the great unwashed!

[mizz]

Just shows how bent some people are especially the work shy scroungers.

[savbaby]

Originally Posted by Titanic99

Self Employed taxi drivers- I remember one person coming in for an interview, he was really proud of himself as he’d just got this job driving a taxi and he came in to tell me he’d be earning a £100 a week (long time ago). Unknown to him, we knew the firm and everyone else there earned £40 a week so after I concluded the interview I came back into our office and confidently predicted he’d be back in again in a few weeks telling us he wasn’t doing as well as expected and that he was only earning £40 a week. Sure enough, I was right.

I dont understand how this could be seen as abuse of benefit system? If he was saying he was going to earn more but ended up earning less then he was surely losing out at first

or am i missing something?

[Jabberwocky]

A family nearby were caught working and claiming practically every benefit going, they had a couple of BMWs, Plasma tellys in each room, a computer that would make Bill Gates drool and... well, they were living VERY nicely, hes a lorrry driver, shes got her own hair dressing and beauty business... they were caught about three months ago, snitched on by friends of theirs who were also ripping the benefits system off, they snitched to get an easier deal.

Imnot sure whatll happen to them but Im fascinated to see if they get away with a slapped wrist, theyve been ripping off the benefits system for about eight years.

[savbaby]

Originally Posted by Jabberwocky

A family nearby were caught working and claiming practically every benefit going, they had a couple of BMWs, Plasma tellys in each room, a computer that would make Bill Gates drool and... well, they were living VERY nicely, hes a lorrry driver, shes got her own hair dressing and beauty business... they were caught about three months ago, snitched on by friends of theirs who were also ripping the benefits system off, they snitched to get an easier deal.

Imnot sure whatll happen to them but Im fascinated to see if they get away with a slapped wrist, theyve been ripping off the benefits system for about eight years.

I dont know how people can do it! I would be so scared that i would be caught!!

[cgksheff]

How many of those scammers that get caught are bubbled by an upset partner after being dumped or cheated on?

[Alex C.]

Originally Posted by savbaby

I dont understand how this could be seen as abuse of benefit system? If he was saying he was going to earn more but ended up earning less then he was surely losing out at first

or am i missing something?

I think the implication is that everyone working at the firm is 'on the fiddle' and that after a few weeks they'd obviously been told that "you can declare you're only working for £40 a week and claim benefits"

[Jabberwocky]

Originally Posted by savbaby

I dont know how people can do it! I would be so scared that i would be caught!!

Yeah me too. I know the family quite well and it scares me to think about it.

If I was in their position Id be a nervous wreck each time to doorbell rang, in fact, the woman was looking more ragged and edgy as the years went on and I often wondered why, I bet it was because of that.

[savbaby]

Originally Posted by Alex C.

I think the implication is that everyone working at the firm is 'on the fiddle' and that after a few weeks they'd obviously been told that "you can declare you're only working for £40 a week and claim benefits"

ahhh I couldnt get my head round it.. thanks

[jibbs1977]

So it was your office plonkers that went and cancled my bennefits by accident and took 3 weeks to sort it out. Maybe there should be a thread on how it effects people when they go and cock up and not seem to have a clue what there left hand is doing from there right. The system cant handle the call volumes and the telephonists havent a clue how to deal with problems. Atleast in the end I got compansation for the huge cock up even though it was just for the phone bill I used for sorting the mess out..

[mizz]

maybe we ought to just stop the benefits system completely.

[Titanic99]

Originally Posted by savbaby

I dont understand how this could be seen as abuse of benefit system? If he was saying he was going to earn more but ended up earning less then he was surely losing out at first

or am i missing something?

What I believe happened here was that the peson started work and in good faith thought he'd earn a certain amount of money, he may or may not have earned this figure, but very soon after he came in and told us that he was earning considerably less.

The figure he declared just happened to be consistent with that declared by other drivers and one which gave him maximum Housing and Council Tax Benefit. Incidentally, the firm (who for obvious reasons will not be named) are one of the most reputable in Sheffield, whether they are in collusion with the drivers is open to conjecture.

I must also emphasise that this was many years ago, detection of Fraud in this area has improved considerably since then, but I'll be the first to admit that we were hopeless in stopping this type of Fraud back then as we just couldn't prove anything.

[Titanic99]

Originally Posted by Jabberwocky

A family nearby were caught working and claiming practically every benefit going, they had a couple of BMWs, Plasma tellys in each room, a computer that would make Bill Gates drool and... well, they were living VERY nicely, hes a lorrry driver, shes got her own hair dressing and beauty business... they were caught about three months ago, snitched on by friends of theirs who were also ripping the benefits system off, they snitched to get an easier deal.

Imnot sure whatll happen to them but Im fascinated to see if they get away with a slapped wrist, theyve been ripping off the benefits system for about eight years.

Out of curiousity did you have any idea what they were doing and what Benefit they were claiming.

My guess would be:

• They claimed to be living apart
• She claimed Tax Credit on her Self Employed earnings and submitted records indicating minimal income from it

[Titanic99]

Originally Posted by jibbs1977

So it was your office plonkers that went and cancled my bennefits by accident and took 3 weeks to sort it out. Maybe there should be a thread on how it effects people when they go and cock up and not seem to have a clue what there left hand is doing from there right. The system cant handle the call volumes and the telephonists havent a clue how to deal with problems. Atleast in the end I got compansation for the huge cock up even though it was just for the phone bill I used for sorting the mess out..

It certainly wasn't me!!

I'm glad you got the compensation, but why did they cancel your claim?

[jibbs1977]

Originally Posted by Titanic99

It certainly wasn't me!!

I'm glad you got the compensation, but why did they cancel your claim?

Some numpty made a mistake and hit the wrong buttom apparently, well thats what I got told. When I rang up first they didnt even know why it was suspended which eventually made sence as it was a mistake.

[Plain Talker]

Originally Posted by jibbs1977

So it was your office plonkers that went and cancled my bennefits by accident and took 3 weeks to sort it out. Maybe there should be a thread on how it effects people when they go and cock up and not seem to have a clue what there left hand is doing from there right. The system cant handle the call volumes and the telephonists havent a clue how to deal with problems. Atleast in the end I got compansation for the huge cock up even though it was just for the phone bill I used for sorting the mess out..

It took the benefits folk from April to October to sort my change of address claim over, when I moved here.

[jibbs1977]

Originally Posted by Plain Talker

It took the benefits folk from April to October to sort my change of address claim over, when I moved here.

Its like anything if a company owes you money or has made a mistake they take for ever sorting it out, but if its other way round they are there banging your house down demanding payment or looking to take things off you.

[Jabberwocky]

Originally Posted by Titanic99

Out of curiousity did you have any idea what they were doing and what Benefit they were claiming.

My guess would be:

• They claimed to be living apart
• She claimed Tax Credit on her Self Employed earnings and submitted records indicating minimal income from it

Im not sure exactly but I think that living apart was one of the things they did, they were also working and she was claiming a ... an injury thing... said she had a bad back? Was getting money for that as well as the income support thing...
They also didnt pay rent for about eight years and claimed other benefits too, they have a couple of kids so they must have claimed for them as well.

Yeah I vaguely remember tax credits being mentioned too.

[Titanic99]

Originally Posted by Jabberwocky

Im not sure exactly but I think that living apart was one of the things they did, they were also working and she was claiming a ... an injury thing... said she had a bad back? Was getting money for that as well as the income support thing...
They also didnt pay rent for about eight years and claimed other benefits too, they have a couple of kids so they must have claimed for them as well.

Yeah I vaguely remember tax credits being mentioned too.

Oops they are up to their neck in it big time, I hope they chuck the book at them!!!