Please give us as much information as you can about the person and why you think they are committing benefit fraud. The more information you give the better. The law says that we must have good reason to investigate a person.
Example 1
Joe Bloggs is working and claiming.
Example 2
Joe Bloggs is working and claiming benefit, he leaves the house everyday at about 7.30am in oily overalls and returns at approx 5.30pm. He drives an old red Ford Escort.
We would not be able to investigate example 1 as it does not give us a good reason.
What we do with your report
We look at every report that we get. Investigations can take some time and it should not be clear that the person is under investigation. We cannot tell you about individual cases as they are confidential.
Remember:
- Sometimes people can lawfully get benefit and work
- The person may have already declared the work to us
- The work may be unpaid or
- The benefit they get is not affected by work
Your report will be sent to our officers who will decide if there is enough information in the report to allow further investigation.
If an investigation is approved they will gather information from different places, for example utility companies, banks and building societies, to support the allegation.
Your report will then be sent to an investigation team who will check the facts and take the proper action. This may be stopping benefits, prosecution or other penalties.