Deliberately withholding information that affects a benefit claim is stealing.
Benefit fraud is a criminal offence.
There are different types of benefit fraud. These include when the person doesn't tell us:
- The actual income of the household
- The correct amount of savings and capital in the household
- If a partner, or other adults (over 18 years old), live in the same property
- If they own another property or land
- If they have moved (and continue to accept housing benefit payments)
Fraud can also be committed if:
- The person pretends to rent a property which they actually own;
- The person pretends to be paying more rent than they actually are; or
- The landlord fails to tell us their tenant has moved and still accepts housing benefit payments for them.
