Hi Erika, thankyou for you advice i am dreading court i really am worried about this part of it as i don't know what to expect and as i have told the truth so far and noone believes me, i'm going to court expecting them not to believe either. My daughters landlady is who i think changed the waterbill and then reported me, i've known her for years as i rented off of her before i moved into a ha hse and i did think we were friends until i left her property and had afew nightmares with her ie getting my deposit back, then withholding certain letters, moving new tenants in even though housing ben had said the place needed to be empty for the notice period. A couple of months later my daughter and her husband became homeless and against my better judgement i asked her for help she rented my daughter a hse and told her she could rent the rooms out to help out with the rent which she did to my other daughter and a friend of her husbands however their friend moved out and as my daughter was on maternity leave they struggled with the rent and as far as i know thats when her dad moved in. A few months later she was given a ha property and ended the tenancy early which the landlady wasn't to pleased about. Then my daughter went to collect the post a few wks later and the new tenant said the landlady had taken the post as there were letters for someone who wasnt meant to be living there. I then had the waterbill come through and it was backdated to when my daughter was homeless and i asked her for help. I know it is her that has done this the only problem is i don't know how to prove it.

Hi, yes they stopped my benefits in January this year, i have made an appt to see a solicitor on Thursday as i do think i need legal help. I didn't have a solicitor when i went for my interview as stupidly i thought as i had done nothing wrong i wouldn't need one. They have sent me copies of there so called evidence and you are right they did just drive by at a certain times and i think they sat and watched for about 45mins on certain occassions i do wish they would have sat and watched everyday then they would have seen that he didn't live with me. The main things they are going on are, the water bill being in his name, 2 birth certificates as they dont show a different address for him even though when the children were registered we weren't asked whether we lived together, although saying this they aren't saying we were living together at them times, a bank account that he opened when we were living together and claiming together however he stopped using that account and never changed the address when he moved out, and it is still registered at a address i left nearly 4yrs ago, they say as when he visited the little ones some mornings i used the time to study that we must have an emotional bond. And finally the survellance and the fact that his car was parked on my drive 21 times in 5 months the survellance also shows the times they actually came and his car wasn't there but they don't seem to be looking at that side of it. The amount is about £8500 made up of housing ben, income support and council tax, it's for ayear as when the water bill was put in his name it was backdated for 6months so they are using this as the date even though the waterbill was changed just prior to me being reported in june or july. He was working for an agency on minimum wage at the time so if he had of moved in with me we would have been entitled to help with the rent and council tax. It wasn't a financial reason that i didn't want to live with him it beause i didn't trust him. I'm in magistrates court in Jan. Thankyou for your help

I do agree this has turned into a total mess, i did try to explain it to the dwp however they didn't believe me about the water bill being changed by someone else prior to them reporting me (i know who reported me however they said it was an annoymous tip off). I really did think that as i had nothing to hide from them, that they would believe me. Looking back this was a stupid assumption on my part. I do understand i also did myself no favours in letting him move in when they stopped my benefits, however i was so scared i'd lose my home it seemed the best thing to do, and i thought getting married would be some sort of security, so he couldn't just walk out again. I just really don't know what more i can do if they won't believe the truth.

Hi i have just received a summons for me to attend court for benefit fraud and i'm worried sick at what will happen, and whether the court will actually believe me. Me and my partner had a very on off relationship for years we always claimed together when we were together then he would always leave and i wouldn't see him for ages then he'd come back to see the kids and eventually we would get back together. The last time we split up was nearly 5 years ago i was pregnant and he decided to leave me again i decided enough was enough and i didn't want him back. I had my son early and he was in intensive care so i did contact him to let him know. He was living at his mums at the time. His mum died the following year and as he couldn't carry on living there he moved in with our oldest daughter and her husband. I saw him whenever he saw fit to come and see the kids. We saw him quite alot over the xmas. Then over the new year after afew bottles of wine i ended up getting pregnant again. I still didn't want him back and he stayed with our daughter. I was very ill with my pregnancy and was admitted to hospital in the end till she was born. He did stay at my house to look after the kids whilst i was in hospital and i didnt think that was wrong as he left as soon as i got home. We saw him afew weeks after that then i never saw him for 4mths until he moved back in with our daughter and in june he started making an effort to try and see the kids again. This is where things went crazy in july last year i received a water bill in his name backdated to jan last year i dont pay my waterbill and i did think he had done it to help me out so i asked our daughter and she said he hadnt however she had just moved and when she had gone to collect her post from her old address the tenant said the landlady(supposedly my friend) had taken the post as there were letters for someone who wasnt meant to be living there. I then knew that the waterbill had deliberately been changed and she'd done it for a reason. As far as i was concerned i wasnt doing anything wrong and let him still come and see the kids he was actually taking a proper interest in them he was working and seemed to have changed his life around when they all got ill he stayed over a couple of nights to help with them so i could get some sleep 6 kids with tummy bugs and chicken pox was really stressing me. In November i got a letter saying i had a iuc so i went as i thought i'd explain that we werent living together but if we did get back together i'd let them know and they said they didnt believe me as they had been watching my home for 5 months in whichtime they had seen his car 21 times, him 5 times, they wouldnt believe me about the waterbill and they had my childrens birth certificates and i hadnt stated he lived at a different address even though we werent asked that when the children were registered. I know that he wasnt living here and that she changed the waterbill to make it look like he was he left his car at mine somenights so did my daughter as they lived about 150yds up the road if the dwp had sat and watched my house they woud have seen him come and collect it in the morning but they either just drove by or watched for 45mins at about 6am. Anyway they stopped my bens in jan and wouldnt change the decision, so i eventually agreed to let him move in so that he would pay my rent but so he couldnt just walk out on us this time i made him marry me, now my marriage is a mess and i'm due in court next month and i'm worried noone will believe me and i'll go to prison he'll leave again and my kids will be devastated and the person who did this to me will get away with it. Any advice would really be appreciated