Council wrongly paid benefits to me age 16 & 17, now accused of fraud?

dd101

Hi,

I have another thread just below about benefit fraud under age but I wanted to ask this question;

Assuming the council beleive I have commited an offence when I was in receipt of housing benefit aged 16 and 17 but they should not have paid it to me, what happens?

To be clearer, in interview the woman asked if I was a care leaver, I said no, I wasn't. She said well the rules at the time you claimed you would not have been entitled to benefit aged 16 and 17 if you was NOT a care leaver. Separately to that they are investigating me for possible fraud between ages of 16 and 18 I do not know exactly why but that's another matter. What I want to know is how they managed to pay me housing benefit under 18, if I was not entitled to it. I wish they hadn't because this is so much hassle! Looking back, there is a good reason not to pay to such young people because most 16 and 17 year olds are not aware of their responsibilities in claiming and I certainly never bothered to keep records, paperwork, rent receipts, I was a stupidly nieve young girl who just wanted a roof over her head.

I did not know until now that you had to be a care leaver, I wonder how they managed to award it to me and my flat mate (I was 16, she was 17) if we was not care leavers???

terryw

The claims to benefit will be dealt with mainly by the information given by the claimant on the application forms. Did you complete and sign the forms yourself?

dd101

terryw wrote: »

The claims to benefit will be dealt with mainly by the information given by the claimant on the application forms. Did you complete and sign the forms yourself?

The first ever claim when I was 16 was made by my landlord for both me and my flat mate. We had no idea what we was doing but he explained we was entitled to it because we earned little money. He got his flat rented and we got a flat to share, which we thought was a great idea back then. So he filled the form in, being a multi landlord he understood the forms. I cannot remember what I did not did not sign back then. We received a letter saying we had been refused benefits due to our age, our landlord was abroad on urgent family matters as his family lived abroad and we asked if we had to leave, he said no don't worry for now, I cant rent my property to anyone else until I am back anyway so just stay put. So we did, then 2 weeks letter we get a letter saying they had revised it and we had been awarded the benefit. Didn't think anything of it at the time as I did not know you had to be a care leaver, I assumed they had wrongly refused it and then realised the mistake and awarded it to us.

My second claim was a change of address, so that form carried over and I filled in a "change of address" I did not make a "new claim" as such. My only new claim was when I left address 2 at 17/18 and went onto my final address.

terryw

It night be an idea to request that the council give you copies of the claim forms to help to jog your memory of what you actually claimed.

dd101

terryw wrote: »

It night be an idea to request that the council give you copies of the claim forms to help to jog your memory of what you actually claimed.

Well I have asked the investigator to call me a number of times, I have emailed her because I need some direction on this so that I can do things such as request documents etc but she avoids me. She refuses to answer any general questions I have and is completely unhelpful. I have complained to the head of the department about this as I think she has also acted out of conduct (as can be seen in my other thread) but I have been waiting for his response for over a week. I feel like I cannot get help anywhere and she has already made her mind up about me, it is making me sick. I have finally got on with my life and am running my own business and supporting myself and now I cannot even go out at weekends or eat properly because I am so worried, its really affecting me.

paulmapp8306

The possible problem here, is if the landlord filled out the form incorrectly - then you signed it. That is basically fraud IF you received a benefit through providing false information. It was effectively YOU providing the information because YOU signed the form.

If that isnt the case, and the information was correct - then the form will be on file that will propove the information was correct - and the benefits office made the mistake in awarding the money. While you may have to pay that money back over a period of time, it wouldnt be fraud. They may try to say that yuo should have known you wernt entitled and told them so - but at 16/17 I dont think thats likely. You could easily argue that at that age you had no idea what you were or wernt enitled to, and were relying on the benefits office to give you your entitlement based on the (correct in this case) information given.

paulmapp8306

Oh - for general information and advice - contact CAB. Dont rely on the investigator as its not really her job to advise you - its her job to investigate you.

dd101

paulmapp8306 wrote: »

The possible problem here, is if the landlord filled out the form incorrectly - then you signed it. That is basically fraud IF you received a benefit through providing false information. It was effectively YOU providing the information because YOU signed the form.

If that isnt the case, and the information was correct - then the form will be on file that will propove the information was correct - and the benefits office made the mistake in awarding the money. While you may have to pay that money back over a period of time, it wouldnt be fraud. They may try to say that yuo should have known you wernt entitled and told them so - but at 16/17 I dont think thats likely. You could easily argue that at that age you had no idea what you were or wernt enitled to, and were relying on the benefits office to give you your entitlement based on the (correct in this case) information given.

I cant remember if he done the form online but I do know that the form I SIGNED was REFUSED, I mean they sent a letter saying because of our age we was not entitled to it. So obviously, at that point there was no indication that anyone had said I was in care etc. The landlord then said he was sort it on our behalf as we had no idea what we was doing, then two weeks later they revise it based on new information or something I cannot remember and they award it. I did NOT sign anything during the time I got the claim refused to when it was awarded. So if he changed anything on the form or provided new, false information so he could get his rent, I 100% did not see or sign it because he was out of the country at the time and I did not even see him!

dd101

As I am discussing this, it is becoming more apparent to me, that my landlord may have been annoyed about the fact that we already owed 6 weeks rent each, which was about £2000 between me and my flat mate as he said we would defiantly get the benefit, therefore let us move in straight away as we done the form.

When he realised we wasn't allowed because of our age but had already let us move in, he may have changed something to make us become entitled to it. This really concerns me because its me that gets investigated! I could be jumping the gun here but I cannot think of any other reason they would refuse it, then based on new information they then award it, other then him saying we had come from care. Why else would they decided to pay 16 and 17 year olds HB after already rejecting it based on age?

Neither me or my flatmate submitted any new information or signed any further letters to the council, we sat waiting, then this letter comes through saying we have been awarded it and that was that. So whatever new information the got, was from him. So confused.

JimmyTheWig

Did you know this landlord, prior to him being your landlord? (E.g. was he a family friend, etc?) Are you still in contact with him?
I ask because (a) you may be able to ask him what happened with the applications and (b) if he has fiddled them then he might be the one getting in trouble from all of this.

princessdon

So when you were told that you couldn't receive benefits as not a care leaver and you did get them did you ring?

Also what relationships (if any) do you have with the 3 landlords? I know you mentioned boss etc? Do the landlords have relationships with each other?

why would you get charitable donations if you were working?