Have You Ever "shopped" Anyone?

[maggiebee]

I haven't (as yet) but have been raging today. Neighbour is in receipt of full Disability Living Allowance or whatever it is called these days. Today she was up a ladder cutting branches from a tree - this is after walking her 3 dogs and carrying a fairly large piece of tree trunk from the local woods. Also goes jogging every morning.
Rant over - I know I won't do anything, but it's been good to get it off my chest.

[DTCwordfan]

Thanks Tlabo, I've just twigged to what's going on.

[EDDIE51]

Here is the benefit fraud hotline web page
https://www.gov.uk/national-benefit-fraud-hotline
You DO NOT need to give your name, you can report it by post, phone or online. If you choose to be anonymous not even the hot line operator will know your name. You can also do it via 'Crimestoppers' again you are completely anonymous.

[sapelesam]

Please bear this in mind, reporting a suspicion has never stopped anybody's benefits payments. It should trigger an investigation, that's all you can hope for. But it is theft if what you suspect is true.

[Tilly2]

I have never shopped anyone for benefit fraud but I have 'shopped' a colleague for 'inappropriate' behaviour.

[EDDIE51]

Saplesam. My son and his wife have been reported 4 times,every time nothing was wrong and no action taken. It was just a nasty neighbour out to cause trouble. But each time the benefit agency had to investigate, even after the 4th time they would not tell him who had made the report. (Even though he was certain he knew who it was)
So maggiebee do not be scared of making the report,if all is OK nothing will happen to the suspect and they WILL NOT be told who reported it.

[NoMercy]

We have nasty neighbours on one side whose children often dump the grandkids at theirs for a week at a time. When dropping off or picking up they park right across our drive and they do it just to try and get a rise.

When the grandkids are next door the won't go to school so I rang Social Services the other week and reported it.

[youngmafbog]

Yup, we have grassed some of out tenants up in the past.

It is fraud.

[cassa333]

Film her doing all these things over a period of time and send it in with a note to the benefits office.

Mind you make sure she can't fall where it came from, like not filming over your fence lol

[david small]

I was grassed up many years ago for painting an old couples bungalow while on the dole. They investigated and found out that I was doing it for nothing because the old chap had Parkinson’s. A couple of years later I caught the now unemployed grasser working while claiming benefits, did I shop him? Tempting, but no.
Hippocrates abound...

[RobNorth]

Most people realise that "shopping" can be a double edged sword and can damage the shopper more than the shopped - the latter often has little imagination while the former may have too much and regret their actions, allowing it to get to them - more so if a prison sentence is involved.

[david small]

Hypocrites, doh...

[Smowball]

Very difficult situation. I once shopped my ex who refused to pay maintenance, claiming he was too ill to work and mentally stressed. This was while he was in Ibiza on a bender with his mates!!! It didn’t even get looked at...

[murraymints]

...Be sure of your facts close to home...as recriminations can come back to bite you...and...you have to live with neighbours

[weecalf]

I’d say if she can cut branches and carry logs .She should be quite able to do her own shopping . I would not shop her as you call it . they have there own way of finding out fraudsters . As someone else pointed out if you do shop you may regret it as you will think anything that would happen in the future to her was your faul .did shoppers once get paid ?

[Peter Pedant]

I have been dobbed in a coupla times.
fact of life really
I also get comments like: he pretends to walk into things
oww!

itr depends on whether you want to see her monkeying around a roof and think - I'm paying for that !
clambering I mean

hey it has just been on the news - Harvey Weinstein and cross border allegations of sexual harassment
so would that mean - he was indulging in Jeux sans fontieres?
Sorry sorry - gets coat....

[Peter Pedant]

// did shoppers once get paid //
emoluments were stopped under the Common Informers Act 1951 I think
that would be for crimes anyway

[Peter Pedant]

// like not filming over your fence lol//

yeah wiv 'Smelly' - he didnt wash when he dealt drugs, he had read maff at uni (dropped out) - Smelly observed the police viddie went thro a door and onto a spot on the oppo wall and was able to back project to the exact place where the neighbour had allowed the camera to be nailed up.

I couldnt very well say: "you arent meant to be able to do that - you're crazy!" - off his anti psychotics and wiv white stuff up his nose - by God he could act Crazy OK

hey and in Spiral/engrenages this week - Laure and Gilou notice that Mercier's photos are too 'high' and identify the flat he was using for cover.....

[hc4361]

I have reported someone for child neglect but I would have to be sure of all the facts before reporting anyone for benefit fraud, as much as I despise it.

I know somebody who was reported and was subsequently investigated. The investigation had a devastating affect on an already anxious and panic prone man to the point he is more anxious than ever and paranoid. He will not go out of the house except for medical, dental and optician appointments in case he is being followed and filmed again. The investigation proved he had been claiming only the benefits he was entitled to but as his conditions have worsened he is now in receipt of more benefits but his life, and his family's, is all the poorer for the experience.

[murraymints]

Hc as I said..not all disabilities are obvious !

[hc4361]

That's true, murray. It must be awful to discover you've been secretly followed and filmed going about your daily business. CCTV on the high streets and in shops is bad enough but at least we know it's happening and isn't focusing on us in particular.

Then there's the knowledge that someone has dobbed you in without knowing who. He is finding it hard to trust anyone now. :(