seperated husbands benefits letters coming to my address??

skintlady34

hi.
my husband and i split in oct 2009, this week a letter has arrived for him, his name and NI number on it, but his first name and middle name are the wrong way round.
i've been away for a week and my daughter opened it and rang me to tell me a letter had come for him.
It says medical services provided on behalf of the dwp. and the form it contains is a limited capability for work questionaire.
Now, my question is, why would it come to my address, could there have been a mix up somewhere along the lines? he has never lived at this address, he lives abroad and is visiting the uk at the moment, we have hardly any contact, he turns up to the the kids once in a blue moon but thats about it, we dont really speak. i know hes been here for a couple of months and is staying with his mum and has been ill, but as far as i am aware he is returning overseas soon. Would he have given them my address or could there just be a mistake in the system somehow? im on benefits myself and am panicking now in case they think im commiting benefit fraud. we had never clamed benefits while we were together, and he never lived at this address so im very confused.

NickyBat

At some point he must have given them your address. There will be a tel no on the letter, ring them and inform them he does not and never has lived there otherwise if they are under the impression you live together it could cause a problem.

DX2

Agree with Nicky when the DWP notice the same address on his claim as yours' it will cause untold misery for you. Inform the DWP exactly where he is staying if you have an address for him, he certainly seems in my opinion to be trying to scam the system especially the middle name first carry on that's an old favourite

Broken_hearted

Shop him for fraud he has no right to use your address.

skintlady34

ok, rang them this morning, they said theres nothing they can do, he has to take his name off my address as its his claim not mine. So i contacted him and he said no, that was the address that was on their system for him, and how dare i open post that isnt mine. so i said sort it out please as i dont want your stuff coming here, and he still insisted that he did not give them this address but it was on their system and hes changed it now.
I didnt really trust it so i rang them back, explained that i was worried it may flag up on there system that there is 2 claims going from this address and it looks like im comitting fraud, they said yes it will def flag up and look that way. they asked for his NI number and they guy said that my address is the address he supplied to them, theres no way my address would be on there system for him any other way. They gave me the number for the fraud hotline, i've rung them and told them the details, they've said his money will be stopped until he provides proof of address. i feel really bad for reporting him now, but surely he cant think he can use my address to claim money????
Thanks for all the replies, hopefully it will be sorted out now easily, im panicking in case they stop my money while they investigate it though.

Starrystarrynight

Don't feel bad about reporting him, OP. He certainly had no qualms about the problems he might cause you, so why should you worry about him.

NickyBat

skintlady34 wrote: »

ok, rang them this morning, they said theres nothing they can do, he has to take his name off my address as its his claim not mine.

This is absolute rubbish. What the person you spke to should have done is remove your address from his claim and suspend his benefit until he make contact and provides a proof of where he is living.
You have every right to stop your address being used, clearly you got the village idiot in that particular office!!

AnxiousMum

Good for you - as said above, he didn't seem concerned about what problems he might cause you, so why should you have the same concern.

You mentioned he's been abroad and is headed abroad again soon? Mixing first and second names around - using an address not belonging to him - seems like a definite case of fraud to me.

skintlady34

well, ive sat on it for a couple of days and have stopped panicking about it now it seems to be getting sorted, and im absolutely furious. He could have caused me untold problems, had my benefits stopped, therefore effecting my (and his) children, all so he can get a few quid a week. I cant believe he's done this on top of everything else, and actually thought he'd get away with it. god knows wot else he's been up to using my address. And now im wondering whether he was trying to claim for the children as well!
i bet he thought he could put the claim in then disappear off back abroad and be getting that money paid into his account. I dont know wots happened to him over the last few years, he certainly isnt a shadow of the man i married.

NickyBat

Well he is a very stupid man if he thought they would never write to him at your address.

skintlady34

Update.
I was contacted by the job centre and asked to fill in an income support form which i returned at the end of feb. I've now had a letter from them requesting i attended the job centre tomorrow for an interview as there is a query on my claim, the letter is from the customer compliance team, so im assuming this has arisen due to the wonderful husband trying to claim from my address, and im guessing im being looked into for a fraudulent claim. The letters for him are still arriving here even tho i reported it to the fraud team at time (in january) and I return them all as not known at this address.