Would you go to prison for hiding savings?

Cornish_piskie

Jennifer555 wrote: »

I didn't get "caught out" I decided to tell them about it.
Glad you're enjoying my misfortune so much.

I can assure you I take no enjoyment from anyone's misfortune - nor do I take any enjoyment from you flouting the rules around savings and claiming benefit to which you knew you weren't entitled. That cannot be construed as a misfortune BTW :cool:

I'm unclear as to what you have declared as your posts aren't clear. Have you declared all your savings or just the ones excluding your ISA?

Saving whilst on a low income is to be applauded of that there is no doubt, saving whilst claiming benefit and signing a declaration that you don't have savings above a certain threshold is fraud. No grey area at all.

FBaby

There is some confusion in what you are stating. According to you, you didn't declare the ISA from the start because you genuinely believed then that as it was intended for savings for your pension, and that you would not touch it at all, it didn't declaring. However, at some stage -maybe coming to read threads here, or maybe the 'investigation' had already started), you realised that your savings should be declared.

What is confusing is that you state that at least at some stage, your overall savings were over £16K, meaning that you had £9K total of non-pension savings elsewhere. That is still over the amount allowed and as it was non pension savings, surely you knew that at least that part should have been reported. Why didn't you if you trully didn't intend to commit fraud?

Jennifer555

FBaby wrote: »

There is some confusion in what you are stating. According to you, you didn't declare the ISA from the start because you genuinely believed then that as it was intended for savings for your pension, and that you would not touch it at all, it didn't declaring. However, at some stage -maybe coming to read threads here, or maybe the 'investigation' had already started), you realised that your savings should be declared.

What is confusing is that you state that at least at some stage, your overall savings were over £16K, meaning that you had £9K total of non-pension savings elsewhere. That is still over the amount allowed and as it was non pension savings, surely you knew that at least that part should have been reported. Why didn't you if you trully didn't intend to commit fraud?

Again, that is why I declared it in the end. And I've explained all the rest of your question elsewhere.
And can I stress again, no investigation of any form had started. I voluntarily decided to tell them about the savings for my own reasons. Tbh none of which had to do with anyone else.

Arg

Caz3121 wrote: »

If it was under £16k you would have still been entitled to housing benefit but the amount would have been reduced by £1 for every £250 over £6k.

£1 for every £250 ,one wonders where one can get a bank account with that kind of interest rate.

Pricivius

Jennifer555 wrote: »

I honestly didn't think there was anything wrong with it at all at first. It was just common sense to me, where I was in my life at the time and I didn't bat an eyelid. Just wasn't a big deal. But the past is the past.
I just very recently started to feel odd about it, perhaps because of the judgmental sorts of things people like you come out with. Maybe I can aspire to one day be as perfect as you have probably always been!

Really? You thought it was okay to have savings because you had labelled them as a pension? Did you not wonder why no one else did this to avoid them being counted as savings for benefits purposes?

I don't see what was judgemental about my post as I passed no judgement whatsoever. There is no misfortune about your situation - fact.

I'm not perfect and have never claimed to be. But we can all aspire to perfection - good idea.

marybelle01

OK. I have come to the conclusion that Jennifer555 is either the stupidest person on the planet or a troll. Nobody in their right mind would still be insisting that their savings were a pension after three pages of being told that they were committing benefit fraud. Anyone who was genuinely that frightened of prison or a criminal record wouldn't arguing that black is white - they would be asking what would be the best way of explaining how they "forgot" some more savings they had, so as not to get into trouble. I'm out - and I suggest that we stop feeding the troll. She doesn't want help, she wants an argument.

paddedjohn

OP, however you choose to dress it up you are just a thief. You have been stealing cash that you are not entitled to and I hope you do get jailed.

dandelionclock30

You wont go to prison unless you've swindled a real lot.There was a couple in the paper who swindled 100k plus and they had 3 houses and a yaught! They went to prison.
You will have to pay it back and pay a fine on top and maybe get a criminal record.
Thing is that the system is open to abuse, and some people find it very difficult to be honest in the face of extreme hardship. Some other people find it diffcult to be honest in the face of anything !
What the govt should do is run a check through all bank accounts at the beginning of all claims making it very difficult for anybody to get away with it.Then less people would be taking a chance.

ab.da54

Jennifer555 wrote: »

leveller2911 wrote: »

I agree. And I too pay loads of tax.
BTW I am not claiming benefits for being out of work, just claiming a small amount of HB because of low income.

I am amazed by the ones on here saying they hope I go to prison. Interesting.

How do you pay loads of tax on an income low enough to generate housing benefit?

Have you claimed any council tax benefit due to your low income, at all?

ab.da54

marybelle01 wrote: »

OK. I have come to the conclusion that Jennifer555 is either the stupidest person on the planet or a troll.

I'm out - and I suggest that we stop feeding the troll. She doesn't want help, she wants an argument.

The 'troll' label gets thrown around too often whenever there is someone who has a train of thought that is different to one's own.

Given your words at the end, it is easy to thiink it is not the OP looking for argument.