in trouble with benefits ?

starving

LizzieT84 wrote:

What happens if someone is on benefits and they spend 3 years losing £100 a week on horses and then they start winning £100 a week for a year. In theory they are only getting back what they have lost and they wouldn't go over the savings limit... so would the benefits agency see that as an income?

it is for this reason that income from gambling is not counted as earnings for tax and/or benefit purposes

starving

my situation is a lot worse than what i thought, it turns out that at one point i had over £5k in my bank account.

the reason why this has come about is that i used my credit card to gamble with, but picked up my winnings in cheques, thus when i had £5k in bank account i had a debt of about £5k on my credit card at the same time as this is how the bets were paid for.

the £5k was then then used to clear the debt off, now i am in trouble for 2 reasons.

a) for failing to disclose the £5k in my bank account

b) deliberatly disposing of the money by paying my credit card off.

stellagypsy

As I understand your posts, you are taking money off your credit card for gambling then using your winnings to pay off your credit card - if this is all you are doing, why bother? Surely you are hoping to win MORE than you are spending on it, which may be the root of the problem.

If you have all the receipts, cc bills etc, and all these transactions tally up, what is the problem with showing them to the benefits staff? Whilst they may not like what you are doing, I doubt they could actually penalise you for this. However, I suspect they think you are deriving "regular income" from your gambling activities - or why do it?????

Think about it - you are claiming state benefits on the grounds of no/low income whilst at the same time taking hefty cash advances from a credit card, gambling with it, putting the (substantial) winnings in to your bank account, then the money "disappears".

On face value, I am not surprised they are looking in to it!

Sorry if I have misunderstood what you are doing, when I worked in Housing Benefits (not that long ago!!) there was no such thing as "online gambling" and most of MY customers did not have the luxury of credit cards to borrow cash off!!

Stella

jules01

imanan wrote:

did you tell them you had over 3,000 or did they they access to your bank account?i know they ask for proof of your account when applying for benefits but surely they dont look at it throughout the year,do they??!!

The only access they have to your accounts is what you tell them and the proof they ask for.They may find out you have more than what you are saying if the Inland revenue informs them(through things like interest payments)

They cannot ask your bank to look through your accounts without your permission,although if you refused permission they can get a court order.

gregg1

totally agree with this reply - I am not surprised they are looking into it either. What I am surprised at is how, when you are on a low income, you think you can afford to gamble like this? If you want to try and make a living at gambling, then fine, go ahead, but either do that or claim benefits - you can't have it both ways. But if you do try and do both then be prepared to pay the price, whatever that may be.

Former_MSE_Forum_Manager

gregg1 wrote:

totally agree with this reply - I am not surprised they are looking into it either. What I am surprised at is how, when you are on a low income, you think you can afford to gamble like this? If you want to try and make a living at gambling, then fine, go ahead, but either do that or claim benefits - you can't have it both ways. But if you do try and do both then be prepared to pay the price, whatever that may be.

Hi

Whilst gambling on low income is a decision for the OP, what I would point out is that if i have read this correctly, this was a one-off bet and not a succession of them to make a living from

Ted_Hutchinson

jules01 wrote:

They cannot ask your bank to look through your accounts without your permission,although if you refused permission they can get a court order.

This statement simply shows the poster hasn't read or understood the DWP legislation contained in Code of practice on obtaining information, version two, Social Security Fraud Act 2001 s.3(1)

You can find a detailed description of how this is applied here