Benefit Fraud - Moral Dilemma

[TheBrightSide]

Hi, I've got an issue I need advice on please.

 

My brother has lived with his girlfriend and their daughter for five years. I was talking to her the other day when her dad came round with a DWP letter for her. She cheerfully explained she claims benefits as a single parent living with her mum and has been all the time she has been living with my brother! She says she does really well from this and even gets free healthcare.

I tried to discuss it with my brother, who seemed to be oblivious to what was happening.

So now my dilemma, do I

• Report her to the DWP, I hate benefit fraud but this feels underhand plus it could affect my neice.
  
• Ignore it, again this doesn't seem right.
  
• Tell her I'm going to report her, this could cause family problems as she has a dreadful temper.
  
• Write to her anonymously saying I'm going to report her but then dont.
  

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Dex

[unclebulgaria67]

In this situation, i think you should just collect information about the consequences of such benefit fraud and provide it to your brother. It is then up to your brother to discuss this with his girlfriend. Advise him that you are worried by this, but won't report it, as you are concerned by the consequences e.g prosecution.

 

It is not worth starting a family argument that could last the rest of your life. Even if you made an annonymous report to DWP, it would be difficult for it not to be guessed that it was you that made the report.

[BankFodder]

Well I can see that you are in a very difficult position.

 

Regardless of what you think about benefit fraud, presumably you care something about your sister and when they find out – and they probably will – she will get into huge trouble which will affect her, your brother, the daughter, and everyone else in the family who will have to deal with her and the problems it has caused.

 

Clearly it's been going on a long time and so that makes it more difficult to deal with.

 

Maybe there is a halfway solution. I think that a good thing to start doing would be to start getting newspaper stories of people who have been caught for benefit fraud and show them to your "sister-in-law" so that she can understand the seriousness and the penalties and the impacts that this will have on people's lives. You might even explain to her that if she was put in prison she would end up being separated from her daughter which presumably she would find extremely distressful and of course which would impact upon her daughter's emotional stability.

I think that you should also be talking to your brother and explain to him how he is implicated in it and could himself be subject to quite serious trouble. Maybe he would start to understand the danger that he was in for his future. I'm sure neither of them would like to have a criminal record and they certainly wouldn't want their daughter to be growing up knowing that her parents had been convicted for quite serious crimes and maybe had custodial sentences for the very least suspended sentences. Have either of them got any previous convictions?

This would be the number one priority in my view.

 

Secondly, maybe you could start to work out a way with your sister where she could come clean but try to represent it as some kind of honest mistake based on stress and not understand the system.

 

 

If you could bring her into this mindset, then maybe she would be prepared to go and see the DWP authorities and to explain to them what has been happening and say that she wants to put it right. She might find it easier to do and they might be more sympathetic.

 

At the end, of course, I suppose that she would be required to pay back the money that she has had. But maybe the other consequences would be much less severe.

[BankFodder]

In this situation, i think you should just collect information about the consequences of such benefit fraud and provide it to your brother. …

 

Hmmm. great minds ....!

[TheBrightSide]

Excellent advice, thank you both.

I'll get some information together and start what isn't going to be an easy conversation.

Cheers

Dex

[dx100uk]

what would be her income stream without it?

does your brother work?

[mariner51]

Don't initiate the conversation, just report her anon to Benefit Fraud Line. Let them decide whether to proceed/reclaim payments. Do you really think she will vol 'fess up to Benefit Fraud?

[TheBrightSide]

Hi,

My brother works full time and she works part time.

 

I have done some research,

there are a lot of high profile benefit fraud cases at the moment

I have printed off some information.

 

To be honest I feel Mariner51 is probably right,

I don't see her coming clean voluntarily and I can't see the conversation going well!

 

She doesn't even hide the fact they are together,

always posting on Facebook about their holidays and pictures of them together at home.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers

Dex

[theronstar]

Hey,

 

I don't know if I could throw my two cents in?

 

I would say that your sister-in-law seems to be doing a good enough job of digging her own grave with the DWP.

 

Tip offs are their primary tool but the DWP can and do investigate benefits claimants on their own initiative.

 

Regular Facebook posts can help them determine her domestic situation.

 

Furthermore, if you brother is living there, I am sure he is registered at her address e.g. receives bank statements there, correspondence from HMRC, potentially named on the gas/electric bill, on the electoral register from that address......

 

So there is every chance that the DWP can determine her living circumstances on their own!

 

I think taking the moral high ground will definitely cause an argument!

 

If I were you, I would just show her any cases of benefit fraud you can find being reported in the media.

[unclebulgaria67]

Question to ask yourself is what do you gain by getting involved ? I am sure we all see possible moral issues on a regular basis, but if we reported them all, it would cause a lot of grief and stress that you can avoid. I would not hesitate to report someone drunk getting into a car to drive it, as the consequences might be horrific. But there are other illegal actions, that i would have to think about. This one is where you point out the consequences of actions and it is up to the brothers girlfriend to amend their benefits before they are found out.

[honeybee13]

I agree with other posters who say to consider what you're wishing for if you report your SiL.

 

In my experience, it's not hard to fall out with family members over something far less serious than reporting someone for benefit fraud, sadly. From reading various fraud report threads here, some of the first people that claimants suspect are family.

 

It depends what you want from this.

 

HB

[TheBrightSide]

You both make good points. I guess I was taken aback by what they were doing and also concerned about the consequences of them getting caught.

 

I thought if I say something and she does eventually get investigated she would then assume it was me who'd reported her which would cause huge family issues.

 

However I've spoken to her and shown her the articles I've found. Unfortunately all she took from it was not to post stuff on Facebook!! She then said "it's no problem, everyone is doing it"

 

I'll step back now and hopefully they'll come to their senses.

 

Cheers

Dex

[honeybee13]

I think you've done what you can. DJ. Try to step back and stop worrying now, it's their problem.

 

HB

[theronstar]

Not to be nosey but it would probably be helpful if you kept the group notified of how the situation progresses.

 

Only because future people in your dilemma could simply be referred to this thread as opposed to members having to address the points you raise, from scratch.

[mikeymack2002]

If you want to show them what can happen due to the possible fraud have a look in the bailiff section in the yellow part at the top.

 

There is a Scoop link follow it and read up on it all. Or see here 》》 http://www.scoop.it/t/lacef-news

[Shoelover]

Go at it another way. Get them to work out how much they would get in tax credits etc if she declared him. Might make her realise.:

[joeblogs]

I remember a very similar post about this subject a while back, looks like it's doing the rounds yet again.

[TheBrightSide]

I remember a very similar post about this subject a while back, looks like it's doing the rounds yet again.

I had a good look through the site before I posted asking for advice.

To be honest I wish I had never found out, it's made me see people I care about in a different light.

Cheers

Dex

[TheBrightSide]

Go at it another way. Get them to work out how much they would get in tax credits etc if she declared him. Might make her realise.:

Good idea, I'll try and talk to my brother as he might not realise the scale of it as the letters go to her parents.

Cheers

Dex