Is my neighbor committing benefit fraud

sandraroffey

my daughter and her partner had a similar problem, only her neighbour was complaining about them....her partner was mending cars, selling them on, or just fixing family/mates cars, but environmental health were there like a shot!!!! they gave her immediate neighbour a recording device to monitor the noise and stuff, but luckily, they found it was just the neighbour being very vindictive - lord knows why. yes, a little noise but nothing to be concerned about. in fact, the car she had specifically complained about 'being revved all the time, day and night' and putting fumes over her fence, didnt even have an engine in it! but the landlord also became involved, so rather than lose the house, he had to take his (very) occassional car mending elsewhere.

can i just add to this, that, unbeknown to anyone, environmental health came and watched/listened at various time of the day and evening, to see for themselves what this neighbours complaint was about, and saw/heard nothing, which is when they gave the neighbour the recording device to use. so maybe environmental health have done the same for the OPs neighbour, and have seen/heard nothing untoward??? just a thought.

Hoof_Hearted

There are some obnoxious, holier-than-thou, PC snobs on here. OP, you have my complete sympathy and I hope you get it sorted. He may not be paying tax and he may be claiming benefits but I am sure none of us want to live next to a motor workshop when we have bought a private residence in a residential road. Press the council to do something and if they don't act, use your MP to put pressure on them.

I have now found out that the word "Polish" is a term of abuse, !!!!!!.

MobileSaver

00ec25 wrote: »

You wouldn't call someone vindictive for reporting an abusive parent to Childline, Social Services or the Police.

I would mind my own business

I'm pretty appalled that you would knowingly allow a child to be abused and do nothing about it; shame on you.

Hoof_Hearted

Well, the abuser might be Polish....

sweetpea26

I agree with the PC bit. Get of your high horses please !!!!!

What has this country become when we cannot open our mouths and say that there are immigrants ripping the system off and before anyone starts there are plenty of British doing the same, I agree that there certainly are.

Would we think twice of reporting some chav who was doing exactly what the posters neighbour is doing. I don't think so.

The fact that the person who is upsetting the poster is I am sure very aware of all that he is entitled to. I have many European immigrant friends and they know the benefit system inside out. I am amazed by their knowledge. They meet in car parks and fill each others claim forms out. They have no problem in sharing this information. So don't call me a bigot simply for speaking what I know.

They are quite happy to take low paid jobs and receive Tax Credits etc. That is more than they would earn at home .... if they are willing to work and pay into the system good luck to them. They are most definitely very very hard workers. Most of them miss their homeland but they are just trying to make a living like the rest of us.

Its those who are claiming as many benefits as they can and then earn thousands working from their homes and pay no tax etc. irrespective of national origin, that deserve to be reported. I don't see why the poster is being slated for mentioning the fact that the neighbour is Polish. Big deal if he was Irish or Brazilian so what if its mentioned.

I am of Irish origin myself and we have worked very hard. We have always earned well above any threshold that would entitle us to any benefit other than Child Benefit. We rightly pay for our Eye care and Dental treatments. At times we have paid for treatment in the Private Health Sector rather than wait for an appointment on the NHS. We have done this because we have worked our socks off. We have contributed to our best ability.

Our children have always been taught to learn to stand on their own two feet and don't expect that its their God given right for a government to hand you anything. So why should people like us sit back and say nothing when someone else is abusing the system.

Eastern Europeans are openly hunter gatherers and waste very little. I have learnt a great deal from those who I know well. Frugal with capital F.

Most of my friends are sending their money into their 'home' bank accounts and some of them are building houses in their homeland whilst they live here. Nothing illegal in that and good luck to those who work hard and contribute to society no matter what their country of origin is.

What galls me the most about some of the comments on this thread is this '!!!!! footing' around mentioning the origin of ones neighbours. Big flippin deal. If someone is breaking the law by running a smelly noisy business in a residential area he should not be allowed to get away with it may he Polish/ British/Irish or from the land of Zog.

By the way 00ec25 shame on you.....ignore the signs of an abused child and you might as well be the abuser yourself. Turning a blind eye to injustice / crime is a thumbs up to the actions of the abuser or criminal.

I really do hope the poster is able to sort this out and you have my complete sympathy and good wishes.

bob2

An awful lot of jumping to conclusions based on stereotypes here.

The only part of the following which the OP has given us any good evidence for is in bold....

sweetpea26 wrote: »

Its those who are claiming as many benefits as they can and then earn thousands working from their homes and pay no tax etc. that deserve to be reported.

The part in bold is a fair assumption based on the amount of activity going on but the rest is pure speculation - the OP does not know if the neighbour is claiming any benefits or paying any tax.

sandraroffey

OP should get onto environmental health in the first instance. they will check noise levels and no one will even know they have been.

seven-day-weekend

paddedjohn wrote: »

Regardless of that he is running a business from home.

You are allowed to run a business at home. However, some businesses would be classed as unacceptable due to the nuisance factor.

If the Council have been informed then they will have acted on it, however, if they decide to enforce against it, the process can literally take years. If the neighbour is not co-operative they have to go onto the next step and the clock starts again. This is nothing to do with the council, it is the law, they can't be discretionary about it.

They may of course have decided that he is doing nothing wrong.:)

Ring the council and speak to the Planning Enforcement Officer.

As regards Benefit fraud, how do you know he is claiming any Benefits? He is probably paying his rent out of the proceeds of selling cars.

theartfullodger

Naf wrote: »

....

Please, enlighten us how the Winsors are cheating the benefit system, or indeed the country. ....

Pleased to see you miss-spelled their "family" name, a made-up one as we know fine-well...

Who else do you know of who inherited 10's of £millions from mum and no inheritance tax was paid?? I recall some £600k-ish (number may be wrong..) tax-fiddle agreed for Charlie/The Duchy of Cornwall a couple of years ago. See the Telegraph (The Telegraph mind...)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/budget/5202655/Royal-Family-are-winners-from-the-Budget.html
There are many, many, more examples...


Benefits, ah yes, well there's the "Civil List" bunging £££s to various persons, some of whom most fair-thinking people would say do not deserve it. I'd call that money a benefit...

Much more eloquently put here...

http://www.republic.org.uk/What%20we%20want/In%20depth/Royal%20finances/index.php
&
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Off-State-Critical-Finance/dp/0955831105

I've nothing against (some of the ..) members of the family - as long as they get a real job, earn some money & pay taxes like the rest of us... I own various family (my-family..) related royal items ,.... probably should flog them off to fawning supporters....

Key Findings

• The estimated total annual cost of the monarchy to taxpayers is £202.4m, around five times the official figure published by the royal household (£38.3m last year).
• The official figure excludes a number of costs, including round-the-clock security, lavish royal visits and lost revenue from the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall.
• Civil List expenditure has increased by 94 per cent in real terms over the last two decades.
• £202.4m is equivalent to 9,560 nurses, 8,200 police officers and more than the total annual Ministry of Defence spending on food. The total cost is also equivalent to a number of high profile government cuts, including cuts to the Sure Start programme.
• The British monarchy is 112 times as expensive as the Irish president and more than twice as expensive as the French semi-presidential system.
• Britain's royal family is the most expensive in Europe at more than double the cost of the Dutch monarchy.
• Taxpayers are kept in the dark about the exact cost of the monarchy, due to the royal household's exemption from the Freedom of Information Act and widespread misunderstanding about the nature of the royal family's finances.

Cheers!! Artful (British Citizen, not subject....)

mileslondoner

I think the OP would have received a lot more sympathy and support here if he had omitted the word "Polish" in his original post and concentrated on presenting evidence for his claims (that he added in the other post later).

The OP might also be more successful in trying to resolve this issue if he approached the guy next door as a neighbour and not from a position of "local" - "Polish".

There are millions of problems that can be sorted out with a smile and a friendly chat over a pint rather than through so called official channels. What is needed though is treating your neighbour on the same partner level rather than allowing his nationality to influence your way of thinking, talking, behaving (sometimes unconsciously).

I remember the story about a Polish guy who received a letter from his Housing Association to inform him that he was flooding his English neighbours downstairs. They did not knock his door to let him know there was a leak, they did not put a letter through the door but instead called their HA. The Polish guy called a plumber, had everything fixed, went downstairs to apologise for the inconvenience only to find out that his neighbours would rather have their bathroom flooded than talk to a Polish person.