Housing benefit fraud

Mojisola

keithj1983 wrote: »

Hi Stormyweather, thanks for your responses, I feel as though I agree with your opinion, I want to be honest because nothing was done dishonestly. Im just worried that sometimes honesty is not always the best policy even though it should be. We have no idea how they have come to investigate her. I can only assume they have looked at her statements and seen transfers between the accounts, because when she took out HB she only had a current account, whereas now i transferred money into her current account and she transferred it into the other accounts, that why im amazed they have not questioned 45k going to scottish widows and only the saver account and Isa.

They might be holding that information back to see if you are open about it. If you don't tell them about that account, why would they believe your explanation of the other accounts?

keithj1983

Mojisola wrote: »

They might be holding that information back to see if you are open about it. If you don't tell them about that account, why would they believe your explanation of the other accounts?

Hi, this is exactly my opinion, if I hold this information as my solicitor is advising me to do then the whole situation starts to look suspect when its not, the only way I can see that they do believe what happened is by being truthful and disclosing everything. They may well be holding back, if they are and I dont disclose it, it will look like something is wrong

keithj1983

StormyWeather wrote: »

You've never claimed any benefits at all?

I don't see the logic of this 'fraud'.

If you were claiming benefits, sold a house, then squirreled the money away in the accounts of someone who wasn't claiming benefits (so outside of the system) so making yourself look poor. That would make sense.

I think get all the evidence you can.
Come clean about the whole situation.
And argue the motive point of view of what you did.

The actual reason stated in the letter that my mum is under investigation for is "failing to disclose bank accounts" im not even sure if it is to do with the size of the money? but i do believe they will surely look into that and then discover everything and thats why i also think i should be honest. Apart from my travels when i didnt claim anything ive never claimed and my mum has only claimed from 09 to current date when she dropped her hours at work to about 6or7 due to age

StormyWeather_2

keithj1983 wrote: »

Hi, this is exactly my opinion, if I hold this information as my solicitor is advising me to do then the whole situation starts to look suspect when its not, the only way I can see that they do believe what happened is by being truthful and disclosing everything. They may well be holding back, if they are and I dont disclose it, it will look like something is wrong

If you explain the whole situation you can say that you didn't realise it was the wrong thing to do.

At this point in time you are aware that it was wrong. So you can't claim you didn't know for anything they turn over in the future after you've been given the opportunity to explain it.

keithj1983

I think I should take what the council told me they know about with a pinch of salt, the first meeting is at 930am on thursday so im sure we will find out a lot more then. I cant remeber what the meeting is called but its being recorded so it is very important and thats why we need to be prepared with what to say. Also its my mum who has to do the talking as it is her under investigation, im not allowed to comment unfortunately.

Jobseeeker

I think you should tell the whole story about the house sale/travelling etc and there's no way you can do this without mentioning the £45k.

Its reasonable what you've said about not wanting all this money in your account while travelling in case you lost bank cards etc, your mother has not touched this money, presumably you will be using it to buy a new property.

The problem is this £7.5k that you said your mother could use if she wanted to. I don't think you should really say that, hopefully she didn't use it.

keithj1983

Jobseeeker wrote: »

I think you should tell the whole story about the house sale/travelling etc and there's no way you can do this without mentioning the £45k.

Its reasonable what you've said about not wanting all this money in your account while travelling in case you lost bank cards etc, your mother has not touched this money, presumably you will be using it to buy a new property.

The problem is this £7.5k that you said your mother could use if she wanted to. I don't think you should really say that, hopefully she didn't use it.

Hi Jobseeker, the 45k is untouched and will be transferred straight back to me in the future. the other 15k which is split between an isa and online saver account 7.5k and 7.5k roughly are both still in the accounts. The isa has hardly been touched, the saver account which i allow my mum to use has quite a lot of activity but the balance has remained. I think i will find it difficult to prove this is mine, especially after so long, for being naive about the situation if the penalty was because of that 7.5k right now i would accept that and reimburse my mum any penalty and ongoing reduction she might get from her HB

elmer

All councils do data matching with various other organisations, and any anomalies are then investigated.
Your mothers Isa will have shown up on an HMRC list, but be aware that the other sum of money will eventually come to the councils attention as well, so its probably better if you tell the whole story now.

elmer

liam8282

Ignorance is no defence.

When your mother applied for housing benefit, she will have had to fill in various forms, sign various papers, all confirming that she had declared all bank accounts, savings, etc at that time.

If there was any confusion about what to declare and what money belonged to which person, it should have been brought up at that time.

IMO, the money has been knowingly undeclared, because if the money was declared, the benefit simply would have not been received.

Also, I am pretty sure where fraud is concerned, the council will have the right to contact your bank directly and ask for information on any bank accounts your mother holds, and the banks will provide them with the information.

It won't help if you are still trying to hide anything from or deceive the council, if they later find out you have been witholding information.

nannytone_2

i suggest that you speak to a lawyer that specialises in benefit law as your lawyer will get you hung out to dry with the advice hes given you