advice on benefit sanctions/fraud please

Housing_Benefit_Officer

If a parent is committing fraud the DLA awarded for a child is NEVER stopped. The DWP would never punish a child for a fraud committed by the parent. The child's DLA is awarded for the child's illness or disability not on the parents financial circumstances.

If your daughter is claiming her child is being punished for her fraud then she is either mistaken or deliberately lying. DLA is never 'sanctioned' for 3 months. You are either awarded it or you are not. DLA may stop if your condition improves or stops it doesn't get suspended for 3 months.

laura678

No it's not completely out of character, we have dealt with many issues but this is by far the most difficult.


Thank you, we will seek legal advice regarding the benefit fraud and try and get some help to sort out the rest of the benefits.


She does have support from portage workers and sure start, I see her as much as possible and try to support them as well, but we both work so is not always possible to spend as much time with them as I would like.

laura678

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

If a parent is committing fraud the DLA awarded for a child is NEVER stopped. The DWP would never punish a child for a fraud committed by the parent. The child's DLA is awarded for the child's illness or disability not on the parents financial circumstances.

If your daughter is claiming her child is being punished for her fraud then she is either mistaken or deliberately lying. DLA is never 'sanctioned' for 3 months. You are either awarded it or you are not. DLA may stop if your condition improves or stops it doesn't get suspended for 3 months.

Thank you- This is what everyone else has said. I think this just about sums the whole situation up really. She must be lying to me, I don't know the amount of DLA she gets, but I'm assuming it isn't enough, she has been used to spending so much and never pays any bills. Think I need to talk with her again.

Indie_Kid

If you can, get hold of any letters from her which state her benefits have been stopped.

northerntwo1

Oh sweetpea my heart goes put to you, you are really in the middle between your daughter and knowing what you know already in your heart. My advice is to offer to have your grand baby but that's where support ends. She isn't telling you truth my lovely and I think you know that. I've had a few parents and child tax credits aren't stopped even let alone carers or DLA.

I don't know enough about benefits to help but from a support view point, don't get sucked in, ensure your grand baby is OK and encourage your daughter to deal with her problems. Once you have the truth you'll be able to deal with things as better as you must be so very torn between wanting to believe her and help her and wanting to let her stand on her own feet. I'm not sure I could stand saying "I know you are fibbing" with my child because what just what if it's partially true?

It's easy for us to say we think she's fibbing and to stand firm but your heart must be torn.

laura678

northerntwo1 wrote: »

Oh sweetpea my heart goes put to you, you are really in the middle between your daughter and knowing what you know already in your heart. My advice is to offer to have your grand baby but that's where support ends. She isn't telling you truth my lovely and I think you know that. I've had a few parents and child tax credits aren't stopped even let alone carers or DLA.

I don't know enough about benefits to help but from a support view point, don't get sucked in, ensure your grand baby is OK and encourage your daughter to deal with her problems. Once you have the truth you'll be able to deal with things as better as you must be so very torn between wanting to believe her and help her and wanting to let her stand on her own feet. I'm not sure I could stand saying "I know you are fibbing" with my child because what just what if it's partially true?

It's easy for us to say we think she's fibbing and to stand firm but your heart must be torn.

Thank you for your kind words, I am an absolute emotional wreck and trying to work out where I went wrong or how I couldn't have given her the support she needed.
I don't know much about the benefit system either, so I definitely need advice to be able to understand what she needs to do.


She also knows deep down she can't cope with motherhood at this time in her life, she did say to me how hard she finds it and I have always said to her if she cannot cope then I will have my grand daughter until she feels she is able to, and if she never felt able then I would bring her up. I don't want to force the situation, but I think there has to come a point where decisions need to be made for the best interests of her daughter.

help4help2013

laura678 wrote: »

She also knows deep down she can't cope with motherhood at this time in her life, she did say to me how hard she finds it and I have always said to her if she cannot cope then I will have my grand daughter until she feels she is able to, and if she never felt able then I would bring her up. I don't want to force the situation, but I think there has to come a point where decisions need to be made for the best interests of her daughter.

if you feel you need to go down this road with her and i agree with what you say as you want the best for your grandchild then i just wanted to say that if you did then you can get other benefits if your looking after your grandchild a friend of mine looks s after her grandson full time and she gets a lot of allowances for looking after him as well as the usual state benefits

Poppie68

Remember no child is perfect and your daughter needs help and support as much as your grandaughter needs love.
How old is your daughter, is it possible that she may need some kind of respite from caring for her little one, sorry i don't know what disabilities she suffers from but even an experienced parent needs some help when dealing with a healthy child let alone one with a disability.
Could your daughter be too scared to speak up and admit the entire mess she has got herself into, just let her know that you will help her and stand by her but you can only do that if she is open and honest about what she has done and any problems she has.
Maybe moving home will be the best for all of you and be a fresh start and also help to limit her time with her ex as they are obviously not a good influence on eachother, while she has the support and company of you she may not feel the need to keep running to him as having the pressure of her daughter and loneliness maybe be fueling their relationship.

Don't worry whats done is done...she now needs to be honest and open with all benefit agencies and if possible go to them and fess up before they go to her. She shouldn't be looking at a jail sentence but she really does need to start being honest with them.

laura678

Poppie68 wrote: »

Remember no child is perfect and your daughter needs help and support as much as your grandaughter needs love.
How old is your daughter, is it possible that she may need some kind of respite from caring for her little one, sorry i don't know what disabilities she suffers from but even an experienced parent needs some help when dealing with a healthy child let alone one with a disability.
My daughter is in her early twenties and yes it is definitely possible that she needs some kind of respite, I think one of the main problems is her accepting her daughter has disabilities. It has been confirmed recently that her daughter will never talk and she also has mobility problems and cannot feed herself. So she must feel very low, I can't begin to imagine what she is going through. I would and will do whatever it takes for them both to remain together. I have tried to support her as much as possible, but I think it requires some kind of outside help too.


I would like to try and get her moved, but this isn't financially possible for us for a while as I am the guarantor on the current property, of which she has made an awful mess and is going to cost me so much to put it back to how we found it. I was hoping the council maybe able to rehouse her a bit closer to home, so she could pop round every evening after work so I can give her more support, but I don't think they would be able to help.

dippy3103

Perhaps you could show her this thread...