Having a flat and getting HB for a room?

purpleroad

Poppie68 wrote: »

It's not just Land registry that gets checked, data matching is used by all agencies, the time will eventually come for all fraudsters when bank accounts, utility companies, insurances etc are checked. Your time will come the longer you continue the more chance you take of getting jailed and a larger fine.

Hopefully they will catch up with you very soon and pile a load of crap on you which will affect the rest of your life.....It's a disgusting scummy thing to do.

What do you mean pile a load of crap on you and affect the rest of your life?

Guest101

purpleroad wrote: »

What do you mean pile a load of crap on you and affect the rest of your life?

Presumebly criminal conviction and prison.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

purpleroad wrote: »

Oh right. So this information in the land registry is accessed all round the country and between different councils. I thought that only if the flat and HB were in the same council area then they would get caught?

Google is your friend - do some research on Data Matching.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Poppie68 wrote: »

It's not just Land registry that gets checked, data matching is used by all agencies, the time will eventually come for all fraudsters when bank accounts, utility companies, insurances etc are checked. Your time will come the longer you continue the more chance you take of getting jailed and a larger fine.

Hopefully they will catch up with you very soon and pile a load of crap on you which will affect the rest of your life.....It's a disgusting scummy thing to do.

Bank accounts are already Data Matched. We employ companies to do credit checks on claimants for us to detect and prevent fraud.

Examples:- http://www.theguardian.com/local-government-network/2012/jul/05/council-tax-single-person-discount-fraud-sefton

http://www.capitalocalgovernment.co.uk/partnerships/pages/single_person_discount_fraud.aspx

(I won't comment on the voice analysis)

Data Matching undeclared bank account - http://www.boston.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=7713

http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/council_and_democracy/council_information/media_hub/media_releases/previous_media_releases/media_releases_october_2014/fraudsters_hidden_c2a330,000.aspx

Article from 2010 that explains things nicely:- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10923819

Poppie68

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

Bank accounts are already Data Matched. We employ companies to do credit checks on claimants for us to detect and prevent fraud.

Examples:- http://www.theguardian.com/local-government-network/2012/jul/05/council-tax-single-person-discount-fraud-sefton

http://www.capitalocalgovernment.co.uk/partnerships/pages/single_person_discount_fraud.aspx

(I won't comment on the voice analysis)

Data Matching undeclared bank account - http://www.boston.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=7713

http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/council_and_democracy/council_information/media_hub/media_releases/previous_media_releases/media_releases_october_2014/fraudsters_hidden_c2a330,000.aspx

Article from 2010 that explains things nicely:- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10923819

Thanks HBO it's an interesting read.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Poppie68 wrote: »

Thanks HBO it's an interesting read.

Most discrepancies have innocent explanations - but it is detecting fraud that has been going on for years. Even claimants that stopped claiming years ago are being found out retrospectively.

Red_Spider

purpleroad wrote: »

When having housing benefit for a room in a shared house (if on tax credits) would the council know if you already had bought a flat elsewhere? Would they know from electric, water bills coming out of one of your bank accounts? (maybe a different account to the one you used for the HB payments.

My understanding is that the state agencies can search the land registry by name of owner.
The general public can only search by address.
A lot of people don't declare rental income to HMRC, so maybe HMRC can't check land registry by NI number? Otherwise, they would be easily caught.

Obviously the state can check anyone's bank account and utility provider if they want to (ie reasonable suspicion, detection of crime, etc)

I know of someone who worked for years, paid tax and also claimed benefits.
Why this wasn't picked up via their NI number seems odd. Unless DWP don't even share data with HMRC? Shambles?

elmer

They maybe had 2 Ni numbers, i do and so does my brother, I have only ever used one though.

elmer

Red_Spider

elmer wrote: »

They maybe had 2 Ni numbers, i do and so does my brother, I have only ever used one though.

elmer

How did you end up with two NI numbers?

Darksparkle

Red_Spider wrote: »

My understanding is that the state agencies can search the land registry by name of owner.
The general public can only search by address.
A lot of people don't declare rental income to HMRC, so maybe HMRC can't check land registry by NI number? Otherwise, they would be easily caught.

Obviously the state can check anyone's bank account and utility provider if they want to (ie reasonable suspicion, detection of crime, etc)

I know of someone who worked for years, paid tax and also claimed benefits.
Why this wasn't picked up via their NI number seems odd. Unless DWP don't even share data with HMRC? Shambles?

HMRC have access to many different sources to find those not reporting rental income eg SDLT, tenancy deposit schemes, credit reference agencies.

DWP and HMRC do share data but not enough in my opinion. Thankfully circumstances like you describe will be prevented in future by universal credits.