Is this fraud?

Nelly17

My mate has been having marital problems and eventually moved out of the marital home a couple of weeks ago. The separation has almost been sorted.

He rang TCO a couple of days after he moved out to tell them of his change of address and circumstances. Now he has received a demand for an overpayment and on querying this with the helpline he was told it was due to the delay in reporting the household breakdown last July 2006.

Apparently that is when they were told by his wife that the breakdown occurred. He was unaware of this and has never received any correspondence or renewal pack to the marital home regarding the termination of the claim. The only thing that he knows is that when he was moving out he asked his wife about the TC's and she said it was sorted but he decided to contact them himself with his change of address.

He is now assuming that she told them of the breakdown when things started falling apart and made a single claim in her own right. BUT he has been living with her and the kids all along and paying towards the bills and mortgage as usual.

Is this fraud and if so will he be in trouble with TCO too? Also what should he do about the overpayment demand.

minimadtrix

He should get proof of when he moved out. Did he change his address anywhere else at the same time? Was he still paying council tax at the address up to when he moved out - when were they informed. Also, does he rent - if so, he'll have a tenancy agreement showing when this started.

I think you'll find that if anybody has committed a fraud here, it'll be the wife if she has been claiming being single whilst they have still lived together. Even if they have been sleeping in separate beds, they are still together in the eyes of the powers that be.