Does she have anything to worry about?

M47

Hi everyone I am a little concerned about a friend of mine, so I wanted to get your opinions.


I am writing this about a friend of mine who is on benefits (ESA to be exact) and has been called into the job centre for a meeting, they asked her to provide bank statements going back to a year and a half.

Now just to be clear she has not committed any benefit fraud, however she is a little worried because during a time period of about 6 months she let her boyfriend at the time use one of her bank accounts to get his salary paid into (as he didn't have a bank account at the time).

So when she presents her bank statements it will look as though she was getting paid from a job, even though she was not working.

I advised her to just tell them the truth and explain the situation and get her ex boyfriend to provide a written statement confirming this, along with something from the company confirming confirming that she never worked for them.

Does she have anything to worry about? Could they stop her benefits? or could she be in any sort of danger?

(Just to be clear she has never worked whilst receiving benefits).

Ames

There's three issues with this.

Firstly that it looks as though she was working.

Secondly, if she's on income based benefits, that it looks as though she had an income that wasn't declared.

Thirdly, again only relevant to income based benefits, that it suggests the relationship was close enough that they were living together as man and wife so his income would be taken into account for her claim.

So she has to find proof that she was living alone and the income was his. Is there a corresponding withdrawal a day or two later when she gave him his cash? Is the reference for the payment something that helps prove it was his - his name or NI number? Is there a valid reason that it was being paid to her and not him?

I think the key piece of evidence would be something from his employer stating that payment of £x on y date with reference abc was wages for the boyfriend.

Although that still leaves proving that they weren't living together, hopefully he has bills etc for another address?

pmlindyloo

M47 wrote: »

Hi everyone I am a little concerned about a friend of mine, so I wanted to get your opinions.


I am writing this about a friend of mine who is on benefits (ESA to be exact) and has been called into the job centre for a meeting, they asked her to provide bank statements going back to a year and a half.

Now just to be clear she has not committed any benefit fraud, however she is a little worried because during a time period of about 6 months she let her boyfriend at the time use one of her bank accounts to get his salary paid into (as he didn't have a bank account at the time).

So when she presents her bank statements it will look as though she was getting paid from a job, even though she was not working.

I advised her to just tell them the truth and explain the situation and get her ex boyfriend to provide a written statement confirming this, along with something from the company confirming confirming that she never worked for them.

Does she have anything to worry about? Could they stop her benefits? or could she be in any sort of danger?

(Just to be clear she has never worked whilst receiving benefits).

So how did that work? Was it a bank account that he alone used and would show his income and outgoings or was it a bank account that she used and the money 'mingled'?

If it was the latter then I am not surprised that they are investigating.

Are you sure that they weren't living together at the time?

If it is was a bank account that she didn't use at all then it may be OK if she can evidence the income and outgoings to show no connection to her.

If it was a shared bank account then she could have a real problem as they may assume that they were living together at the time and sharing finances or indeed that she working.

M47

Hi

it was a bank account that only he used. They were not living together she might be able to provide proof of this somehow

TELLIT01

M47 wrote: »

Hi everyone I am a little concerned about a friend of mine, so I wanted to get your opinions.


I am writing this about a friend of mine who is on benefits (ESA to be exact) and has been called into the job centre for a meeting, they asked her to provide bank statements going back to a year and a half.

Now just to be clear she has not committed any benefit fraud, however she is a little worried because during a time period of about 6 months she let her boyfriend at the time use one of her bank accounts to get his salary paid into (as he didn't have a bank account at the time).

So when she presents her bank statements it will look as though she was getting paid from a job, even though she was not working.

I advised her to just tell them the truth and explain the situation and get her ex boyfriend to provide a written statement confirming this, along with something from the company confirming confirming that she never worked for them.

Does she have anything to worry about? Could they stop her benefits? or could she be in any sort of danger?

(Just to be clear she has never worked whilst receiving benefits).

If she was claiming Conts only ESA she has nothing to worry about.

If she was claiming Income Related ESA and declared her boyfriend and his earnings on the claim, she has nothing to worry about.

If she was claiming Income Related ESA and didn't declare her boyfriend and his earnings she potentially has plenty to worry about. In this situation she will need to show proof that they were not living together AND that the boyfriend wasn't spending a substantial part of the week at her home. If he was stopping overnight the difficulty in proving they weren't a couple at the time will become even greater.

WhenIam64

The "friend" is in fact you, you spineless thief stealing tax payers money.

I hope they make you pay every penny back and suspend a further claim for a long period, making you suffer.

This poster appears to have some serious issues as they had previously been banned under a different name, reported and removed. So expect TB to disappear.

As to the issue of the mingled accounts, it happens a lot as getting a bank account is a difficulty now as the banks quite rightly have an obligation to tighten up. Unless you are a Russian oligarch.

So they will be aware of the issue but it will need explaining and somehow backed up by evidence if you can get it.

If it does cause a problem, there are appeals that can be done so the whole issue can be examined by different people and not solely one DM.

bertiewhite

TruthBeIt wrote: »

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