Housing benefit fraud

zabi89

It is of course going to look suspicious, why transfer that amount of money to her, why not keep it in your own accounts? Doesn't quite make sense to me nor will it make sense to the people investigating.

GobbledyGook

Does your Mum declare the income you give her for her HB?

I hope you have good legal advice. You've got yourselves in a real sticky mess with so many twists and turns it might take a good legal brain to get you out of it.

liam8282

It is strange that you only now reveal this issue with you owning your mothers property and that you benefit from her receiving housing benefit.

You also have not answered when questioned what is submitted on your tax returns, with regard to this rental income.

Put that together with the various money transactions, set up in your own name, your mothers name.

Then, that you would consider with holding information from the council investigation, with regard to the £60,000.

It all starts to look very fishy, it is not a surprise that this is all under investigation.

I would not be surprised if HMRC got involved too, if you have undeclared income from the rental property.

Poppie68

It seems like you both could be landed into a bit of a mess here...have you been declaring the rental income for tax purposes?, has your mother been declaring the £200 - £250 income for benefit purposes? Did your mother declare the relationship between landlord and tenant when applying for HB?
Overpayments may be the least of your problems..

NYM

keithj1983 wrote: »

I would prefer not to go too much into my personal life, but no my son did not come travelling with me.

I now give my mum 200 for helping out looking after him, school runs, food etc, whilst I was away it was increased to £250 as she done more.

The facts are only 450 goes into my account instead of 650 and the reason is I give her 200. The council told me i should collect 650 and then give her 200.

If they cannot accept the explanation regarding the 200, Im happy now to pay the overpayment to have this whole situation sorted.

Perfectly understandable that you wouldn't wish to give any personal info on here.

I do think you're going to have more trouble than the HB people to deal with though.

In effect, your Mum was 'earning' £250 p/m through her child-care role. She will need to have declared this.

If your Tax Return doesn't reflect the whole rental income (£650) then you will have been under-declaring your income and the possible consequences would be for HMRC to deal with.

You'll also have 'avoided' the tax payable on the interest on your investment income by having those investments under your Mothers name.

thorsoak

Oh what tangled webs we weave ...............

Alter_ego

keithj1983 wrote: »

The council were very understanding which was good and they did seem to understand why we have done things the way have.
(

There is a world of difference between "Seeming to understand" and believing you.
Ever heard of the good cop/bad cop technique?

keithj1983

I only now mentioned I own the property that my mum lives in because up until we found out yesterday it was never an issue. It was declared to the council from day 1 that my mum would live in a property that I own which is totally acceptable with the council.

I have not declared the income I recieve because it only works out to earning about £30 a month after I've paid my mortgage.

My mum did not declare she was receiving £200 a month from me because it was not a wage if you like, it was expenses she had to pay for helping me out, school runs (petrol), food etc.

I know its starting to look messy. The lady carrying out the inreview after the tape had stopped advised we have been naive and really need to change the way we do things asap because all although it may be honest it doesnt come across that way.

notanewuser

keithj1983 wrote: »

I only now mentioned I own the property that my mum lives in because up until we found out yesterday it was never an issue. It was declared to the council from day 1 that my mum would live in a property that I own which is totally acceptable with the council.

I have not declared the income I recieve because it only works out to earning about £30 a month after I've paid my mortgage.

My mum did not declare she was receiving £200 a month from me because it was not a wage if you like, it was expenses she had to pay for helping me out, school runs (petrol), food etc.

I know its starting to look messy. The lady carrying out the inreview after the tape had stopped advised we have been naive and really need to change the way we do things asap because all although it may be honest it doesnt come across that way.

You are going to be in A LOT of trouble.

Poppie68

Unfortunately the £200 you were paying your mother is still an income regardless of how she spent it. All you can both do now is wait and see what they choose to do.