Does the government know when you change address? Re housing benefit

GHolmesAdmin

You are being very silly, and will end up in court. Why are you so opposed to doing this properly? Actually the longer you get away with this the worse it will be for you when you are inevitably found out.

Alice_Holt

SimonStevens1 said:

The money is paid directly to me not my landlord it just goes into my current account, so no name would need to be changed , it would just keep being paid in monthly like it always has been... 

     ...in respect of a property on which you now have no rent to pay.

      
      What could possibly go wrong?

    Clearly fraudulent as has been stated, so a possible criminal prosecution.
    And then the council will recover these fraudulent HB payments back from you.  
   Criminal record, debt, and a problematic relationship with the council for any future claims.   

  Do come back and tell us how it goes.

  Or maybe just accept your responsibilities as a HB claimant. 

KatrinaWaves

Yeah it’s been mentioned in passing but these benefits cannot be backdated, particularly with deliberate deception. 

So you’d end up with a massive overpayment of housing benefits where you currently live (but have left), so you’ll have to pay that back, plus you’ll still owe all your rent from the current time so you will have missed out on a bunch of legitimate benefit payments as they won’t go ‘oh well you would have qualified here so we’ll just transfer it’ 

Alice_Holt

KatrinaWaves said:

Yeah it’s been mentioned in passing but these benefits cannot be backdated, particularly with deliberate deception. 

      Indeed.

         We do occasionally get belligerent client's contacting our Citizens Advice office, who have managed to foul up their benefits by deliberately and knowingly attempting to "by-pass" their obligations as claimants. 
       This, obviously, is very different to our vulnerable client's who have come to grief because of the convergence of a precarious mental state, a complex benefits landscape, and an unforgiving DWP administrative system. 
      And, of course, quite different to client's seeking to challenge incorrect DWP / council decisions.   

    The first group tend to obfuscate, and then often resort to aggressive behaviour towards both staff and volunteers when eventually the true facts emerge and the client is given clear advice / guidance which they don't want to hear.
This unfortunately takes resources away from clients in the second two groups. 

   

[Deleted User]

Why wouldn’t you tell them? Your making it sound like a huge deal when it’s not.