benefit stopped, help needed

carl6468

posting for my sister as she doesn't use the internet. she rang me last night really upset as she's got herself in a mess with benefits, her own fault, but she needs help now. trouble is, i don't know a great deal & from what she's told me, it just doesn't make sense & i'm worried that she's not telling me the whole story.

her boyfriend moved in with her, she says 6 months ago, i think it's at least a year ago (i don't see her often as i've moved away but we keep in touch by phone, not too regular though). she's in a rented council house & has 3 young children from a previous partner. she didn't tell anyone when her boyfriend moved in so has still been claiming everything as a single person. she knows how stupid this was, i'm furious with her, but it can't be undone now.

they have now told the council etc. that he's there, but that he's only just moved in. her housing benefit has been stopped & they've made a new joint claim (?) for any benefits they can get. she works part time on min wage, probably takes home up to £200 on a good week. he takes home £350 per week.

this is the part i don't get, she's got an appointment at the tax office next week to get their tax codes sorted & she seems to think that this will make 'everything ok' ? i thought benefits only got stopped when it was something serious & how is a tax code change going to sort everything? could she already be under investigation for fraud?

i did try to get more info out of her, but she was getting really upset & just wasn't making sense. i did originally say well it's your mess, you've got to deal with it. but i am worried about her, especially if she isn't telling me everything.

Dogger69

The benefits have been stopped whilst they assess her new claims. With a joint take home of £550 per week chances are she will now receive very little.

Her lies can be undone, she can admit that she did not notify the authorities six months ago and accept a suitable sanction. You could also choose to report her - she has committed a crime.

anmarj

she may be talking about either working tax credit or child tax credit both which would of been effected when he moved in. She either has been found out and has interview (possibly under caution) or they have just made an appointment to due to the change she has reported, you would properly be best to call her again and try and get her to calm down to get all the information and find out exactly what benefits she was getting ie did she get income support, child tax credit etc

letthemeatcake

Has she also told the tax credit people that her partner has moved in? If she only told the council then this may be why she has an interview.

Housing benefit would have been temporarily stopped because she is making a new claim.

Coraline

It seems to me that different councils operate in different ways. Back a couple years ago when I moved into the household, my partner and & went to Town Hall and reported the change of circumstances--they printed off the new forms and the claim was instantly adjusted (for Housing/Council tax benefit)

As for Tax credits, when we called HMRC they put an immediate stop to the claim, and after six weeks of chasing up forms back and forth they made the adjustment to make it a joint claim.



As for the claiming "he just moved in" scenario that's just open to trouble--there are myriad ways they can check and find out the truth. I would advise her not to lie under any circumstances.