Benefit fraud

[lorla]

I have a neighbour who is claiming housing benefit and single person's benefit and claims to be living alone yet lives with her boyfriend. Someone has reported her and the Benefit Fraud Squad have been in touch with my husband to ask him to make a statement to confirm that we see the boyfriend arrive each evening and leave every morning. My question is this – is it right that if found to be fraudulently claiming benefits, it’s the landlord that has to payback the benefits that have been claimed while the boyfriend has been living there, and not the tenant?

[Greedyfly]

Why would the landlord have to pay it back?

The tenant it claiming benefits and breaking the law not the landlord?!

[bednobs]

i would really hope not, but don't know. Unless the landlord is complicit of course

[Jan1957]

No, the tenant should have been paying the landlord but hasn't, so it will be the tenant who has to pay it back to the local authority.

[ummmm]

No...it's the tenant. They sign a declaration when they claimed benefits not the landlord. The only thing the landlord would sign is the tenancy agreement.

[lorla]

Great thanks. I did think it was odd but wanted to check it out - the next door neighbour's landlord claimed this was the way it worked?

The landlord knows what's going on but hasn't done anything about it....perhaps that's why they think the landlord would be liable?

Thanks all!

[ummmm]

Who thinks the landlord would be liable?

[mollykins]

My brother is in the landlords situation but I can't remember what he said will happen.

[ummmm]

So that was a complete waste of a post Molly...!

[mollykins]

I'm trying to remember, i'm not sure if they tennants had fraudulantly done it, but . . .aha I remember now.

The council pay a percentage of their rent but possibly through fraud, the council had been paying too much so the tennants will have to pay extra and the council less, untill it levels out. I don't know if it's quite the same but something similar might happen.

[daffy654]

I wasn't aware that the benefit fraud people even asked for statements from neighbours where this sort of this occurs.

[daffy654]

.... unless of course it was your husband that reported the neighbour, otherwise they would have asked for statements from both of you surely?

[lorla]

It was another neighbour that reported them and my husband said he was happy to be contacted.

The lady claiming benefits is the neighbour from hell - she is also under investigation with Environmental Health for noise complaints. All the neighbours are talking regularly to each other and willing to help each other out in anyway possible.

[Sooper]

I totally understand what its like to have neighbours from hell and wish you luck with getting it resolved. Have you had the sound recorder installed yet by Environmental Health? Ive got one sitting in my flat right now recording my delightful neighbours noise levels! Im hoping this will assist in getting them evicted! Fingers Crossed!

[ferferksake]

I can only refer to my experience of the rules about 7 years ago, which, granted, may have changed since then.

I used to be a landlord and was asked by the council to repay money that they had overpaid in housing benefit to me on behalf of one of my tenants, which meant I had to recover that money back from him. When the housing benefit is paid directly to you as a lanlord you have to sign, agreeing that you will return any money overpaid.

If the housing benefit was not paid directly to the landlord, then they will not be asked to repay it. If it was paid directly to the landlord, they may well be asked to pay it back. Of course the tenant would still be prosecuted, not the landlord. It's the tenant who is making the fraudulent claim, not the landlord.

[lorla]

Yes Sooper been there, done that! They have about 2 weeks of recordings from us and page after page after page of log sheets. Our neighbour was called into the EH offices to talk the complaint through and in an effort to make her see how serious it is....we've seen little change in her and EH don't seem to fussed about helping a great deal. We're hoping that because she's still noisy and because there's a few other neighbours now complaining, that they'll serve her with a notice. Oh the joys! Her fraudulently claiming benefits is just the icing on the cake. What a lovely girl!

Ferferksake - that's interesting and very helpful, The plot thickens....

[ummmm]

They've stopped paying to the landlord now.

[ferferksake]

ummmm - Glad I'm not a landlord any more then! lol

[ummmm]

I suppose it's because of cases like this...which is unfair to the landlord.