Housing benefit and gambling winnings

scootw1

is this thread a wind-up?

Mr_Falling_Star

You could use the winnings to pay your own rent and then you don't need to worry about HB

FBaby

Why do you think you should be able to keep all of this income without any consequences? You are already fortunate that for some reason, it is not taxable.

Be grateful to be in the position you are in and able to enjoy a decent life for some time from your winnings. Either you get a job and get taxed on it and still loose you HB, or you gamble instead of working, why should it be any different?

pricew1970

I would hazard a guess that the OP is a matched bettor, so not strictly gambling, and he/she is probably making a small income from it. If this is the case then its pretty immoral to be claiming benefits as well...

dealer_wins

pricew1970 wrote: »

I would hazard a guess that the OP is a matched bettor, so not strictly gambling, and he/she is probably making a small income from it. If this is the case then its pretty immoral to be claiming benefits as well...

To be fair its still technically gambling, and it is not classed as income for tax purposes. (If it were there would be a lot of tax rebate claims from losers!!)

As for benefits they may well class it as income, and they definitely will be able to find out about money held in bookie accounts.

This is due to people using Hills, Lads etc to hide savings over the £16000 limit and they check bookmakers the same way they check bank accounts, share registers, investments etc.

Its all in the name/dob/address/card/bank account/ewallet (I have a friend who works as a senior benefit fraud investigator and you would not believe how much they can access/check without even contacting the company holding the account!!!