Tackling a strange kind of benefit abuse.

Prudent

I need advice please for a situation in my OH's family which has got very nasty.

OH's brother is mid 50s and has severe mental health problems. He lives in a four bed council house which was originally the family home for everyone. The house is large and OH had noticed it was extremely unclean. In his hols OH helped with cleaning, but we can't do much as we both work full time and I also have health problems.

We suggested he gets a cleaner (his cpn has also suggested this at times) and OH offered to lay new flooring, both of which the brother agreed to readily. We said we could arrange the cleaner if brother could pay for them. He recieves IB (just about to migrate on the ESA), higher rate mobility and higher rate DLA plus rent and council tax so has a reasonable income. He spends little on himself, doesn't go out, wears old clothing etc. His only treat is a take away twice a week.

There is a large family, some of which live locally. One sister, I shall call her sister A is a foster carer for this brother's child. She is on all the benefits above also plus claims kinship allowance etc and benefits for the child. In addition sister A constantly takes often large amounts of money (e.g £1000) off the brother allegedly for the child, but the prupose is often unclear. She always claims to have money problems.

She has stirred up huge trouble in the family about the cleaner and has made the brother anxious and ill. She blames this on OH as he suggested the cleaner.She has also told the brother's child that we are making her dad ill. She has led the family (who are not up on these matters and don't use the internet) to believe that 1) the brother receives no money for personal care and 2) the brother will then loose the house as he will be deemed not to cope. Frankly there would be advantages to him downsizing, but as they all use it for storage and social gatherings there is huge resistance.

Is there anywhere we can go with this? OH is very troubled by the conditions that is brother is living in.

Mojisola

Prudent wrote: »

We suggested he gets a cleaner (his cpn has also suggested this at times)

Is there anywhere we can go with this? OH is very troubled by the conditions that is brother is living in.

I would take this up with his CPN and ask advice.

deedee71

What a waste - a much needed 4 bedroom council house being used for storage and social gatherings!

I would second getting the CPN and even the council involved. The OP's brother in law would probably benefit from downsizing.

The "foster carer" bit was hard to understand - are you suggesting she is fleecing a vulnerable adult??

Again the CPN or social worker for the child needs to be involved.

I would urge the OP to action before this situation gets much much worse.

SuziQ

Having been through this situation with a relative I'm afraid it is extremely difficult to sort out . People who manipulate and take from vulnerable people are very skilled and always seem to be a step ahead in my experience. Because we couldn't get the person we were trying to help to agree to help we had to walk away.
The woman doing this could possibly be affecting her own benefit income by taking such large sums of money from him though- might that be a way to tackle it? Letting her know that she could lose some of her means- tested benefits by availing herself of his? Definitely involve his CPN as already suggested, but many of them are so stretched by huge caseloads lately, they often don't want to/ have no time to get involved with family disputes.

Prudent

Thank you everyone. I think the money is always handed over in cash and therefore there wouldn't be any evidence. The person given the cash has a severe mental illness and couldn't cope with answering a starnger's questions about it, so reporting this wouldn't be an option.

zzzLazyDaisy

Off topic, but you do know that in April he will lose 25% of his housing benefit?

http://www.housing.org.uk/policy/welfare_reform/%E2%80%98under-occupation%E2%80%99_penalty.aspx