ADVICE NEEDED URGENTLY

[suzie1]

if you are a lawyer or a police officer, fraud investigater, u might be able to answer this........what if you found out that an elderly neighbour has been recieving a widows pension for 5 years and her son has been having it go into another account, which he opened on her name and he has been taking her widows pension himself, and hasnt been giving it to her and she isnt aware that she gets it, because he has been using his wife to sign her signiture and withdraw the money pretending to be my neighbour. i know this is fraud and he will get done for this, but i need to know under whcih section/law has he commited a crime and who do i report it to, i have told the lady and asked her to keep quite until i can be sure what i should do, as i am very sad that her own flesh and blood can rip her off like that, she is devastated, and i have told her that i will get her money back for her through the law..thanks

[suzie1]

Anyone? please

[sara3]

it's not straight forward benefit theft, and I'd suggest the police would be the first port of call.

I don't think you should be promising to get her money back for her, but good luck.

[ge02rde]

Several Laws have been broken.
1: Fraud
2: Money by deception
3: Its almost certain it is not been declared by him and it would be classed as unearned income and subject to Tax.

Im sure there are at least a couple of more offences ie the fraud is both from your neighbour and the Pensions Agency.

They may also be cashing other allowances like cold weather patments

However you need to make sure He/She is not authorised to receive the benifit on her behalf.

Your 1st contact should be to call the National Benefit Fraud Hotline (NFBH) on 0800 854 440. Lines are open between 7.00 am and 11.00 pm, seven days a week. It is free and confidential.

Godd Luck

Regards
George
.

[brenda]

What a shocking thing to happen to a vunerable person. I feel sickened by it.I think you have been given some very good advice and I hope that you will be able to do something to help this poor soul.
Am worried that you may put yourself at some risk by doing something and would urge you to take the greatest of care and keep matters as confidential as you can.
Please let us know if you can how things work out, you have my greatest admiration .
Sincerely .Brenda.

[suzie1]

thanks to all of you for replying to my post, i will look into it and step carefully, so dont worry brenda i have just had a threat from the son to butt out of family issues, told him to get lost and work out a way to get himself off the hook....coz hes gonna need a lot more than threats to get me off his case. and his mum had thrown him out of her house, no more visiting rights

[momcj]

How sad is that! There are some greedy cruel people around. I personally would contact my local police station. x

[factor-fiction]

I'm not clear what the widow's pension is. Is it a private pension or a pension from a her deceased husband's employer?If the latter then the pension scheme would need to be told

[fredpuli47]

It's theft, fraud and forgery for a start. As suggested you should try the benefit fraud people first.They have considerable powers in investigating and will soon establish accurately what exactly he has been provenly doing and will involve the police if crimes beyond those within their own area of operations have been committed, as seems likely. If you wish to remain anonymous, I think Crimestoppers would also be interested but go to Benefit Fraud hotline first and speak to them

[factor-fiction]

Yes, it seems like clear fraud ...but is it a DWP issue though? It depends what is meant by a widow's pension- I'm still not clear who pays it?

[bednobs]

out of interest, how do you know?

[suzie1]

THANK YOU, tullia, thats a good point in every angle, i will try and keep out, or maybe ask for more informaiton, her pension has come from her husbands old place of work, he died and it was arranged for her to recieve, she doesnt say very much, to be honest she is sounding and behaving a bit sheepish, she said she doesnt want her money back now but wants her bank book and her son said she can have it. so im keeping out of it now. thanks all of you for your help, i just dont like fraud of any kind and it upsets and winds me up when a old person is taken advantage of.

[bednobs]

well your answer would probably be useful to me if in fact i was speaking to you tullia2 but as i was asking my question of susie, it isn't

[suzie1]

Hi bednobs, i know because the lady had someone from the pension service write to her asking her how much she recieves of her dead husbands pension and she didnt have a clue that she got it...dont know if she forgot or she was just confused. they asked for bank statements and her son gave her photocopies of them, he thought if he hid it any longer, she would lose all her income, and it was shocking that he had been withdrawing it for him and his wife, coz on the statement it says someone signed the wrong signiture and it was a man and woman....just to keep an eye on who withdraws money next time. its a savings account with a book and card.