Allegation

[MWB]

I feel half good but half bad. I just made an allegation about a married couple in my village, (1000 - odd pop) receiving only a social security benefit; neither of them work. But they have just bought a nice, 2nd hand car, just got back from a 3 holiday abroad, are flitting off on planes all over the country, (just a month ago to pick up a dog they bought off some sort of EBay site), & have only today gone to the city to buy a house in a rather upmarket area! They already own a house here & are doing extensive renovations. They also had backpackers paying to stay at their house last few summers, (the house was 2 flats - therefore the renovations.)
Of course they made have received an inheritance or the like, but being a small village someone would have known.
Have I done the right thing?

[sara3]

yes, the DWP won't even see them unless they find solid evidence of a potential fraud.

[Ethel]

How do you know they are receiving benefit?

I have lived in my present house for over 30 years and nobody knows that I have my own business and work; nor the private pensions I am in receipt of or the fact that I still get an income from the business I sold years ago.

Nor do they do the inheritance I got or the compensation from a very nasty traffic accident.

Yes, I do have neighbours who call round for social visits but I don't discuss my income with them.

I may not live in a small village but I do live in a small cul - de - sac where most of my neighbours have not moved for 20 years.

But you've done the right thing.

[Octavius]

Providing you have good reason to believe it, I would say it is a civic duty, as well as a moral obligation to report them.

[smudge]

I know of a particular person who works full-time in an office (8-5:30), & is away most weekends. However, she is supposedly a carer for her neighbour (who is disabled after breast cancer treatment) & has been allocated a brand new people carrier to ferry this disabled person around.

I wonder - when does this person working full time in an office & who goes away at weekends warrant having a brand new disability car for mostly her own use? They've obviously come to some agreement between them....

I wouldn't even bother reporting her, as I can guarantee nothing would be done about it!

[Sgt.Rock]

Yes, if they are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about.

[Bbbananas]

snitch sneak tell-tale tit.
But, all that besides - yes, you've done the right thing.
Nothing to hide - then nothing to worry about !

[Ethel]

Nobody gets 'given' a car. It is paid for by the disabled person via their mobility allowance.

They can choose to lease a vehicle or keep the money.

Many cars you see with disabled badges are privately owned and not leased through the motability scheme.

A carer has to provide 35 hours care per week - which can be night time, It is taxable and you can't get it at all if you earn more than �95 per week.

Carers' allowance can also affect the benefits of the person being cared for - it can reduce the benefits they receive.

I imagine somebody working full time earns more than �95 a week

[smudge]

That's what I can't understand Ethel. The person who drives this motability car, sold her own car to take on this one. She's never hardly at home or sees this disabled person....

She works full-time & I know is on more than �16,000 p.a.

[Ethel]

How on earth do you know it's a motability car?

She's earning too much to get carers' allowance. As a carer she wouldn't be entitled to a motability car - it would be leased to the disabled person and paid for by the disabled persons allowances.

If you have just seen a blue badge in the windscreen it could be her own car. You don't have to have either a car or be a driver to have a blue badge.

[sara3]

smudge, there is no harm in reporting this. if the person isn't in receipt of benefits they will never know.

if a disabled person is entitled to a car through the motability scheme, they can name an alternative driver.

I can assure you that all allegations of fraud are looked in to.

[spudqueen]

I know how you feel, I once 'reported' a new Mum to my Health Visitor as I felt that she was not looking after the baby properly. I won't go into details, but it was not child abuse, more like ignorance. It obviously wasn't just me as the Health Visitor just said that she knew about this woman, and it was all being looked at.

Actually I wish I had the guts to do what you've done about a couple in the village where I live. There's a couple that live on benefits (definitely), he's on disability, and whilst you will never see him working in the front garden, apparently they've got a very nice back garden. The wife works as a cleaner, privately, for a few local people, and this money is not declared. But I would still feel awfully guilty about 'shopping' them. Everyone else in the village knows about them, and if no-one else has reported them, how should I, as an relative newcomer, react to this?

[MWB]

A lot of people in my village mumble, complain & wonder how this couple have the money to do what they do. They are only acquaintances to me, but I had a wee conversation in the Main St a few of months ago with them & asked what sort of benefit they were on. They told me they were on an Invalids Benefit - he has diabetes. But he is quite well as he's doing the alteration to their house himself.

I know there is no way anyone in the village , (let alone this couple) will know it's me that made the allegation - it's all confidential.

But I had to do it. So if all is legal - good. But if there is benefit fraud - bad.

I often regret that I have spoken;
Never that I have been silent.
Publilus Syrus.

[obNOXious]

I'm with IAP on this, sorry, and no I don't claim any benefits myself , but I do believe that in the circumstances mentioned that there's not necessarily anything untoward going on.
Some people seem to think that anyone claiming any sort of benefit should have a hair shirt on, eat mud and have a generally miserable existance. These people are entitled to a decent quality of life just the same as the next person, just because they manage their money well and have a nice house/ car/ holiday doesn't mean they are necessarily benefit cheats. I'm glad i'm not in your village too.lol.

[mrs.chappie]

But if they've done nowt wrong, they've nothing to worry about, have they?