Housing benefit and gambling winnings

fabforty

Tomasulo wrote: »

Thanks for the reply

When my benefits were stopped they had no idea of my capitol as I wasn't aware I had to declare it. The latest statement I send had a little over £300 in my bank account.

All they said was, 'we've looked at your statement and can see that between X of May and X of June you received £xxx from this bookie. We are dividing this amount by the number of weeks and using this as income. No more benefits for you...'

They can access bank records, so can see how much capital you have/had even if you don't declare it. Regardless of how you got the money, the fact is that you had it and that is what they are basing their decision on. The 'I could lose it all tomorrow' argument will never succeed as everyone could say that. If you gambled it away tomorrow, they would probably call this depravation of capital and you would still get nothing.

Tomasulo

Unless they can access my bookies accounts then they are not going to know that I ever had more than £500 to my name.

I my opinion, the 'I could lose it all tomorrow' argument is different in this case. If they are suggesting that I am making an income by gambling and no longer need any benefits, then they are implying that I always profit from gambling.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Tomasulo wrote: »

Unless they can access my bookies accounts then they are not going to know that I ever had more than £500 to my name.

Your bookies will already be sharing details of your account with HMRC as they need to have access to prevent money laundering. HMRC share this information with the DWP to prevent and detect fraud. You will already be in the 'system'. Sometime in the future a Data Matching excercise will flag your capital is over £6,000.

System

fabforty wrote: »

depravation of capital

I've never seen capital that is depraved, slightly immoral maybe. I think you mean deprivation

Tomasulo

I guess I will make an appeal to the appeals officer. I will simply say that I don't believe my gambling winnings should be counted as income and see what happens.

Unless anyone thinks I'd have better luck doing something different.

Thanks for the help so far.

Marisco

Tomasulo wrote: »

Sorry to bump an old thread but I've spoken to my local authority and two people have told me the same thing. They are saying that any income can be used against my claim and hence have stopped my benefit.

I've tried to argue my point but am getting nowhere. I've told them that the HMRC doesn't count gambling winnings as income but they've replied that it's up to them as a local authority to make that decision? I've tried making the argument that I could win £1000 today and lose £2000 tomorrow.

Does anyone have any advice as to where I should go from here?

My benefits were stopped completely because I had several withdrawals (£800+) from one particular bookie over the period of one month. That is, despite having many outgoing transactions to other bookies.

Yes, stop gambling!

RuthnJasper

I'm honestly not having a go at you OP, but you really do need to have a serious think about things if you are unemployed and claiming benefits and yet are gambling. It is very real to say that you could lose everything and find this a stain on your record for many, many years to come.

I'm pleased that you had a win - but, ultimately, the house will win. Presumably, you are also staking your benefits on the gamble. What would you have done if you had, in fact, lost the £6k?

Again, I'm not implying that you have such problems - but you may find that http://www.gamblersanonymous.org.uk/ are a handy port of call.

Good luck to you, and take care.

TELLIT01

If your bank statements show a regular pattern of payment from gambling then it could certainly be considered to be 'income'. Even if you just have a couple of big wins you need to declare them immediately as it is capital and will have an effect on your benefits.
The paperwork you received when benefit was paid would have stated that you have to inform them of any changes.

xylophone

I am currently unemployed
Over the last few months I have managed to make several thousands of pounds through gambling

How about getting a job that would utilise your skills... foreign exchange dealer?:cool:

stevemLS

RuthnJasper wrote: »

I'm honestly not having a go at you OP, but you really do need to have a serious think about things if you are unemployed and claiming benefits and yet are gambling. It is very real to say that you could lose everything and find this a stain on your record for many, many years to come.

I'm pleased that you had a win - but, ultimately, the house will win. Presumably, you are also staking your benefits on the gamble. What would you have done if you had, in fact, lost the £6k?

Again, I'm not implying that you have such problems - but you may find that http://www.gamblersanonymous.org.uk/ are a handy port of call.

Good luck to you, and take care.

I seriously am having a go.

Get a job, earn money and pay your way.

The social security system is not designed to support the lifestyle of someone who chooses not to work but then accumulates wealth through gambling.