£10 is the fee for a SAR???? I'd simply go into a branch and get them to print them off for you, I wouldn't be parting with a tenner!

SAR? No idea, know nothing about this sort of stuff. What I find incredible is that some random person on the internet, just because I disagree with him, can decide to ruin my life by making up stuff about me. I would have thought the person would have to know me in real life, live in the same area etc! It's just utterly farcical.

Can decide to ruin your life?!

Perhaps they got the impression that for a little effort on their part they’d get a disproportionate effect by you.

Engage with DWP, show them through the statements that it is a false accusation, move on with your (unruined!) life.....

Let's be clear here, a total stranger who can be from anywhere in the world, can "report benefit fraud" when they do not know if that person is on benefits, have no reason to think they are, and even if they are on benefits have no reason to think any fraud has been committed by that person. Indeed, their sole motivation is because of some argument about politics or whatever on facebook.

And the Government allows this. It is utterly immoral and disgraceful beyond all measure.

How are the government to differentiate between such spurious claims and valid reports without holding the most basic of investigation?

What would you have them do??

People reporting fraud need to be held accountable. It is preposterous to suggest that it's desirable that anyone who throws a hissy fit can ruin someone else's life at whim. If the Government find it so impossibly difficult to differentiate between such spurious claims and valid reports, then of course reporting fraud from members of the public shouldn't be an option. And what's the point anyway since the amount of fraud involved in benefits is miniscule compared to the amount of fraud committed by big corporations and the very wealthy?

50% of the UK population have 92% of all wealth. The top 1% have the same wealth as the bottom 60%. The top 10% have nearly half of all wealth with the other 90% squabbling over the other half. The average person in the top 20% have one hundredfold the wealth as the average person in the bottom 20%.

The whole fabric of modern capitalist societies is morally devoid. The bottom half of the population, having just 8% of all wealth, are being encouraged to hate and despise other people in the bottom 50%. They want more money, not from the top 50% of people, not the top 10% of people, not the top 1%, but mainly from people who are poorer than they are.

Leaving aside all the “life is unequal and unfair” theme:

The tax-payers and lawful benefit claimants are the losers from benefit fraud.

What are you actually suggesting- it seems to me that you don’t want members of the public to be allowed to report fraud ; what about the benefit claimant who really can’t work but sees someone both falsely claiming benefits & working?

Or the person working 40+ hours per week on minimum wage who sees someone both working and falsely claiming??

You’ve also evaded the point that responding to an enquiry to show that their claim is a valid one doesn’t automatically become “ruining” their life!

Show its spurious, get on with your unruined life.

; what about the benefit claimant who really can’t work but sees someone both falsely claiming benefits & working?

Or the person working 40+ hours per week on minimum wage who sees someone both working and falsely claiming??

.

The tax-payers are losers from benefit fraud. But vastly bigger losers from rich peoples' fraud.

As I said, it's the bottom 50%, owning 8% of all wealth, fighting over the crumbs left. It's someone saying, I want more of the cake! But not from the people who have 90 odd% of it, I want more cake from those who have even less than me!

It's a question of priorities. We ought to be vastly more concerned about the tax evasion and fraud from the richest people. *That* should be the Government's priority.

Which doesn’t actually answer what you think should be done about reports of benefits fraud from the public, or why you think your life has been “ruined”.

Ahh well, better for you to pontificate about unlikely changes in policy than answer about reality.

As I said, nothing should be done about reports of benefits fraud from the public. I don't see the purpose when we have much bigger fish to fry. Or rather, I do see the purpose, the purpose is to deflect attention from the nefarious activities of the rich.

As I said, nothing should be done about reports of benefits fraud from the public. I don't see the purpose when we have much bigger fish to fry. Or rather, I do see the purpose, the purpose is to deflect attention from the nefarious activities of the rich.

The old lets tackle tax evasion rather then benefit fraud argument!

Yes Tom, that would be preferable. Although it needn't be one or the other. My main complaint was the fact that a total stranger on the net who knows nothing about my personal circumstances -- what job, if any, I have, whether I'm on benefits etc -- is allowed to ruin my life. I mean shouldn't it be a neighbour, someone who I know personally etc?

Forgive me if I ask again, but you’ve again said your life had been “ruined”.

What makes it ruined by these events, and why is it unrecoverable?

Sorry Bazza, I'm not interested in your asinine games.

Sorry Bazza, I'm not interested in your asinine games.

Perhaps people aren’t interested in exaggeration of “ruined” lives?.

Is this just a whole straw-man set-up for you to repeat your “life is so unfair, big business” arguments from Facebook, here?

If not : if you can’t cope with the fall-out from an easily rebutted report of benefit fraud, then lock your settings on FB down to “friends only” and stop irritating others there, as part of reconsidering if you have sufficient personal resilience to get into arguments on social media and being able to cope with the resulting fall-out!

I will have problems if my benefits are not paid next time since I won't be able to pay my rent! And my benefits are due before she'll have received these bank statements. So I have that huge worry, just for starters. Hyperbole can convey one's mind state.

I don't see why I have to agree with everything anyone ever says on the net, just so they won't cause trouble! I note the town where I live was publicly available.

Anyway, what you say fails to address the utter disgrace of random individuals, throughout the world, being able to maliciously report benefit fraud and they can simply get away with it.

Ruined, I tell you! Ruined. “Hyperbole”, on a consumer action website?

Since it isn’t a literary site, I take your use of “hyperbole” to mean : Exaggeration for posh people (or “wanna-be” posh people).

Have your benefits actually been sanctioned, or is that hyperbole (Exaggeration) too?

You don’t have to agree with everyone. Ignoring something you disagree with isn’t agreement.

You can also choose where, and how, you disagree.

So, disagreeing here (if you’ve followed the site rules about identifying info) is unlikely to cause you woes.

You got into an argument on Facebook. You provided enough details to a stranger, on FB, for them to make the report. That makes you as responsible for the false report as them.

They fired the gun, but you handed it and the ammunition to them ....

Ghost00.

This is a consumer action forum. Recipients of social benefits are regarded as consumers of a service thus their concerns are addressed here as well.

I don’t believe this is a site to air your gripes about what you, or those you interact with, get up to of your own accord on other social media sites or outlets. If you have an issue with them, get them to sort it out for you, or are you expecting others to now sort out a mess of your own making for you?

I would commend colleagues who have taken the time and the trouble to address your issues thus far, undeserved as it turns out. To be turned on as being somehow complicit in your perceived victimisation is beneath contempt.

You have been told politely that it was by your own misguided interactions, which appear to have backfired, and an inability to keep your own affairs in order, far less the worlds’, you find yourself in your present predicament. For that, you have only yourself to blame.

No amount of advice or guidance will be of any use to you if you choose to ignore it.

Like the man said; ‘Get a life and don’t be so stupid in future’.

Baz, I have no idea what your problem is? What is the purpose of your posts to me? The net is choc a block with people like you who do not answer questions, apparently understand nothing, go off on a tangent, and generally say nothing of any interest whatsoever. Yes, I shouldn't be wasting my life attempting to converse with the likes of you.

@Lapsedwokaholic, I have no idea what that word salad means. If you have any objections to any of my posts, then paste in the part you disagree or have issues with, then provide details as to why you disagree.

Baz, I have no idea what your problem is? What is the purpose of your posts to me? The net is choc a block with people like you who do not answer questions, apparently understand nothing, go off on a tangent, and generally say nothing of any interest whatsoever. Yes, I shouldn't be wasting my life attempting to converse with the likes of you.

Yet, here you are!.

You are unhappy about the people you interact with on FB.

Unhappy with the compliance people at DWP

Unhappy with benefit fraud investigations

Unhappy with respondents here if they don’t agree with you 100%

Some might surmise the commonality in your unhappiness...... is you.

You remain the author of your own misfortune.

Actually, I like most people I interact with on fb. Anyway, no further purpose is served by me further contributing to this thread. I said I'd come back to let people know the result of the interview. My suspicion is that most of these compliance interviews are not routine. My advice to people is to retain their old bank statements. This would most probably have been all over with me if I hadn't thrown them out. I've learnt my lesson. And I've also learnt to not specify my location in fb.

Bye.

Glad to be of service Ghost. Good-bye to you and may your spirit find peace.