Another interesting topic on MW Show this morning...Would you shop a benefit thief

[Bobbisox]

Me personally, No I could not shop anyone for all it infuriates me , apparently there is 1.3 billion pound a year goes on Benefit fraud and now they, being the Government are giving you a cash incentive to shop someone,
But what about the tax dodgers, they should go for them rather than Joe Bloggs in the street, the fat cats who are big time crooks by avoiding paying UK taxes would bring in more revenue ?
Still couldn't do it tho'
Bobbi ♥

[Sqad]

Too bl00dy right I would.

That is fraud and my taxes were paying for this villain.

"Too soft UK"....no wonder the layabout immigrants from distant countries want to enter UK legally or illegally to " fill their boots".

[ummmm]

No I don't think I would but saying that, as far as I know I don't know any. Except Gingers counsins Ex....but I found out that after he (the ex) shopped her.

He was living there and paying the bills and food while she claimed Income support, council tax benefit, housing tax benefit and undeclared child maintenance.

[Mr Veritas]

Just consider how much MP's have cost you in expenses fraud over the last 30 years or more,this puts any possible Benefits Fraud (and the newspapers hype it up out oif all proportion) into the shade.
One wrong doesn't make the other right,but at least(in general) any Fraudulent Benefits MAY be going to people who are less well off already,whereas MP's fraud CANNOT be justified.
Just a Thought.

[Slapshot]

Yes and have done in a fit of anger and family at that and i did it because i got the phone before my missus.
Said individual had just scrounged £50 from Mrs Slapshot, then told us about the giro she was expecting, how much she got for this and how much she got for that and that she never had any money but smoked 30 fags a day, was drunk most nights and the final straw was on drugs........haven't spoken since for some reason....no loss!!

[Bobbisox]

Good point Mr V, it is the MPs who should be looking in over and examining their consciences I think

[Bobbisox]

what villain is this sqad?

[Bbbananas]

It would depend on their circumstances and how much I liked them or sympathised with their case.....

[Sqad]

Fraud is fraud, whether you are a layabout or an MP.

One cannot have a "touch of fraud" as one cannot have a "touch of pregnancy"

[Mr Veritas]

I think Benefit Fraud stinks Bobbi,
BUT
It is easy for people to pick (often without evidence) on those already getting benefits.
They never seem to pick on MP's fraud,in fact going by the fudging excercise going on in Parliament very few MP's will pay back the full amount (if any) and the ones that go to court will probably get off with a fine,or a slapped wrist.
Benefit Faudsters are (very) often jailed for their crimes.

[Sqad]

Joy

"Villain?....the Benefit Thief.

[Barmaid]

If I knew someone doing it, yes I would shop them - not for my own financial gain though since I would not want nor need a "cash incentive". It makes me bloody furious that people work very hard to achieve what they have and then there is the type of person who thinks its a god given right to claim benefit AND work cash in hand (two frauds there - benefit and tax evasion). Some people desperately need benefit - it is their only form of income when they are prevented from supporting themself. Those who fraudulently claim it make it harder for those genuinely in need since everyone becomes a suspect. Fraud on the public purse is a fraud against all of us.

[Bobbisox]

I agree sqad, but rightly or wrongly I could be a snoop for this or any other Government, yet I would have done the same as Slapshot under those circumstances and someone who done that to me or mine, but I would tell them I was doing it

[Bobbisox]

oops that should have read <could not be a snoop>

[LoftyLottie]

I understand totally where you are coming from Bobbi. As much as I deplore benefit fraud I deplore the fact that the rich can afford to employ clever accountants that know all the tax dodges - worse in my opinion.

However, yes I would shop a benefit fraudster, but I certainly wouldn't shop someone who claims benefit but just does a few extra hours here and there to top up their income, e.g. a pensioner who does a little cleaning job, or the like.

Benefit fraud is costing this country a fortune, but I wonder how much tax dodging by so called "pillars of the community" is costing us.

Much easier to pick on benefit fraudsters who haven't the means or knowledge to defend themselves!!

[Sqad]

I agree with Barmaid.

Mr.V ......MP's the majority of the MP's expenses scandal were morally wrong not illegal.

The 4 (at the moment") who were claiming for non existent mortgages were frauds in the strict legal term and I will be surprised if they do not go to jail. They will certainly get more than their "wrists slapped"

[Slapshot]

I work stupid hours, this week it'll be around 85, i earn a fair wage and pay my fair share of tax and NI conts. The country is shot to ***, we have a huge national debt which taxpayers of all ages will have to sort out in the end, yet we have a class of people who have no interest or intention in getting work, they leech every penny out of the system they can to drink or smoke their way through life. I've had enough of them....

Immigrants: I think those who come to the UK, settle and start to contribute to the national economy are great they are trying to make a new life for them sleves. on the other hand there a polish girl works with mrs slapshot, she's effectivley self employed, pays no tax or NI for the first two years in the UK, and will then bu&&er off back home. She already owns a chain of hairdressers in Poland but can make more here!!!! makes you wonder

[Bbbananas]

If you ask me the rich greedy bankers and the expense-fiddling MPs are just as despicable as benefit thieves. They are all fraudsters.

The genuinely poor however cannot fall back on some archaic law whereby they cannot be prosectuted for fraud because 'what goes on in parliament stays in parliament'. Craptrap all of it.

[Bobbisox]

that is definitely the point I am making LL, they are going for the soft option instead of taking on the 'fat cats and the bankers'
I absolutley hate the idea of someone fiddling the system for the hell of it and like you I don't have a problem with pensioners and the minority who really are scraping by, but I couldn't live with my conscience just going out and shopping folk to get this kind of money off this beleaguered Government

[wendilla]

Yes I am sorry to say I have .After seeing most of the houses been bought in my street by private companies that have families in them that keep having more family so that they do not have to work and claim all benifits but most of the men or boyfriends are working..They have the best of everthing .I have never had a brand new car but they do. They have there plasma tvs and all mod cons .I of course have helped to pay for that over the years. And as for the mp's make them live on low pay for a year .Why not report them after all it is fraud.

[Sqad]

salla...the bankers and MP's may be "fraudsters" in your eyes, but not in the eyes of the Law.

Immoral....yes, but it is not against the Law to be immoral.