Will selling my car on ebay affect my benefits?

Ritch_Tmm

Hi
Since January this year i have been reported to the benefit fraud team twice. The 1st time was because i was using my ebay so my son to sell items as he was 17 at the time and could not sell on ebay until he was 18, he was just making a little pocket money while he was at college. The second time was 3 months ago because i sold my small car which i had for 4 years and i sold it at a loss . When i went to see the fraud officer he said it was fine, checked all my info and said nothing will happen.
I then bought a little van with the money from my old car and added a little extra money what i have saved over the years. I bought the little van as i was going to get it made into a little camper van to take the grandchildren away for short trips but i cant really afford to convert it.so im wanting to sell it.
My concern is that i am going to get reported again from the person who has obviously got it in for me. What do you think? will i get into trouble with the fraud officer or will i be ok. This reporting lark has got me a nervous wreck and i'm totally confused as to what is correct and what is wrong when it comes to selling my stuff while on benefits. I am actually thinking of ringing the local benefit office up and explaining to them that im going to sell my motor and how it will affect my benefits.
Also when does getting reported all of the time it become harassment?
Looking forward to your advice regarding this matter.
Thanks

ballisticbrian

Sorry but the only thought that came to mind was "First World Problems".

mrcol1000

No it won't affect your benefits if you are selling personal items. However if you have brought and sold two vehicles in four months then I can see why someone thinks your buying and selling for profit. You'd only have to declare it if you buy or make things purposely to sell.

Unless you have absolute proof this person is reporting you to be vicious then there is nothing you can do. My point above, they may not be doing it to get at you, they may genuinely think you are making money on the side. I can see how a benefits fraud investigator may suspect the same thing too.

If you are that worried about how it looks on Ebay, why not just sell it to a dealer? They will never know what you did with the vehicle.

hollydays

You must have told someone you are selling on eBay . Tell people nothing.

robatwork

Setup a new account just for selling on ebay.
This mysterious person who keeps reporting you won't know about it - unless you tell them of course. Who is it?

soolin

I did some voluntary work via a charity and was considered the 'ebay person' and I mainly talked to people who had been turned into the DWP via their ebay or Gumtree selling activities. Whilst it was never known exactly who reported people , a bit of quiet contemplation often resulted in the realisation that it was someone very close, usually family, and quite a lot of the time the report was genuine and the family member had just got fed up with someone on benefits having a sideline as well that meant they had more than other people who worked long hours.

Your problem was that selling as yourself but for someone else (your son) was the most common excuse for not declaring to the DWP - I think about half the people II spoke to claimed to be selling for someone else and I think that the DWP just see that now as not necessarily the truth. Obviously if your son was fully declaring that income via HMRC and you proved that to the DWP and the figures matched then your position is easier. If your son was also trying to 'stay under the radar' then you are almost certainly already flagged as a potential person of interest.

All you can do is keep records, photos, receipts etc of anything you sell in future to prove it is yours and not a business transaction for you or for anyone else. It might even be worth getting details of your son's tax number so they can check out the earlier issue if that has arisen again. This may crop up time and time again now, even without a report so just make sure that everything you do has a paper trail.

Also never allow any other person to use your accounts, whether ebay, paypal bank etc- that will be picked up as yours and cause all these problems.

Norman_Castle

This should be on the benefits board. I suspect DWP will only be interested if you are earning an income from what you sell. Will you make a profit on this van. If so how much?

theonlywayisup

Too many references to 'little' in your OP make me think there is more to this than meets the eye. People try to lessen their actions to make it more plausible, is that what you are doing?

Despite your son not being old enough to have his own account, if he was selling on your account to 'make a little pocket money' it sounds more like he was a business than selling your old tat. If he or you, buy or make to sell, then you are a business and yes it needs to be registered as such and that in turn may have some consequence on your benefits.

If someone has taken the hump then you can register another account to stop them complaining about you again, but the bigger question, should be whether you are correctly registered/selling?

hollydays

And also, if you have a bit of nouse, and the person is selling the same thing repeatedly , they could just do a local search and possibly rediscover you that way.

JamesGreene

Ebay is a good platform to sell you car !