AIBU? Hiding money to obtain benefits.

Exactly, SueDonim.

I'm sorry to say I won't believe the stories told unless the teller - the person who thinks they are superior - tells me they reported the fraud and what happened. You are complicit until you do.

As for not reporting your private pension, please don't try is. This sort of malicious gossip of that being what others do would swiftly land you in trouble. It is very easy for the DWP to track the pensions in your name. They will want to know why you haven't declared them. Even if it has been wound up and any allowable amount claimed years ago, they will want proof this happened.

Anyone I know who has been on unemployment benefits, has had to work jolly hard for them. The DSS expected them to have applied for a certain number of jobs each week and to bring evidence of this to any interview they had with the agencies.

People can be told to lower the level of jobs they apply for and have had their benefits cut or stopped if it is considered that they are not making enough effort, are turning down jobs or leaving them soon after starting, or getting sacked.

of course there willbe some people cheating, but noway as many as urban myths would have us believe.

I agree, and think that the amount of hassle claimants get is shameful.

It must be dispiriting enough to be out of work without having to account for every hour of every day like that.

Cases like the one in the OP are probably rare, and in any case are, IMO, understandable although not particularly ethical.

Should.
I don't even know what we're talking about now.
Just being contrary for the sake of it.

??

Well, if we can't be contrary at our time of life it's a bad job, really.

I think it's one of the only things left we can do without being pulled up about it.
Well.
Mostly.

MissAdventure

Should.
I don't even know what we're talking about now.
Just being contrary for the sake of it.

??

Though my mother would say I’ve always been Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary. ? I think she hoped I’d grow out of it but it hasn’t happened yet.

Your mother was right.

Ooh, and still is, I'm sure!
Apologies.

Yep, still is - 94, in her own home without needing any help and still thinking the world would run better if she was in charge!

That's excellent, isn't it?
She must be good stock.
Does she live in Scotland, if you don't mind me asking?

It still amazes me that the British pension is not means tested like it is in most other countries. Sure,y she would get it whatever money she had? It is no one’s business what she chooses to do with her own money.

nanna8

It still amazes me that the British pension is not means tested like it is in most other countries. Sure,y she would get it whatever money she had? It is no one’s business what she chooses to do with her own money.

If the pension were means tested there would be no incentive for those on moderate incomes to make provision for old age, as it would just be taken away from them.

Why do so many people seem to think that it is ok for younger people to want a comfortable lifestyle, but when older people feel the same they are being grasping or greedy? As soon as older people are offered anything from a bus pass to a TV licence they are expected to show how poor they are before some will stop begrudging it.

Saving for older age used to be seen as a responsible thing to do, but these days people are better off spending as they go and having nothing 'for a rainy day'.

I am not on the state pension, incidentally - I have a few years to wait, but this sort of talk makes me really cross.

It sounds as though the “friendship” was on shaky ground anyway, therefore not unreasonable to end it.

Why do so many people seem to think that it is ok for younger people to want a comfortable lifestyle, but when older people feel the same they are being grasping or greedy?

Is this really true? Not in my experience.

growstuff

*Why do so many people seem to think that it is ok for younger people to want a comfortable lifestyle, but when older people feel the same they are being grasping or greedy?*

Is this really true? Not in my experience.

I think so, yes. Not everyone, but there never seems to be a discussion about pensioners without someone pointing out that many of them go on cruises or bought 'cheap' houses, as though many younger people have extravagant holidays and benefit from the bank of mum and dad. The high interest rates of the 80s and 90s are always forgotten, too. Poor old Mick Jagger is always dragged into the discussion, as though he'd been heard saying that if only he had a bus pass he would get out more.

I'm not saying that younger people aren't struggling - of course many of them are - but cutting pensions won't benefit them (in fact, as has been said on this thread already, a rise in the state pension means that when younger people get older they, too, will benefit), and the state pension is a contributory benefit, so women who get the full pension (whether the new at 66/7 or the old one at 60) will have paid the NI to qualify. Their contributions have gone to previous generations, so it is not unfair to young people to have theirs paid to us - their time will come (if they don't fall for the rhetoric and vote to have pensions means-tested, that is).

Oh, and those with occupational pensions have paid for those, too, and budgeted for retirement on the assumption that they would have both. To start means testing after the event would completely destroy their plans (and many people have already had there plans destroyed by the rise in the SPA).

And destroyed by Equitable Life.?

The state pension is not a contributory benefit for many people! There is a very poor correlation between what people pay in and what they receive.

I'm not claiming that making pensioners worse off would make younger people better off, but it's blatantly obvious that this government is buying votes from its core supporters.

On average, today's pensioners are better off after housing costs than average working people. They are the wealthiest generation of pensioners (on average) that there has ever been. I'm sure you are aware that the value of occupational pensions has been destroyed for younger people. Not only will they work for longer but will receive less. That has nothing to do with your hobby horse means testing.

Maybe I should give up on Gransnet because what I personally see is an awful lot of very entitled posters.

And badly mangled by Allied Crowbar.

Germanshepherdsmum

I hope you didn’t go along with it.

MIL did not have any property, DH declared both her private and state pensions and all her savings. This happened a long time ago around 25 years ago.

Knowing my luck, I wont be surprised if by the time I reached state pension age of 67 years, the state pension becomes means tested.

In some countries the state pension works like a private pension ie., all your contributions will go into your own pension account and if you die before state pension age, your family or whoever you nominate will inherit all your pension.

nanna8

It still amazes me that the British pension is not means tested like it is in most other countries. Sure,y she would get it whatever money she had? It is no one’s business what she chooses to do with her own money.

I'm not sure what you mean by your second sentence. If someone comes into money they would currently continue to get whatever State Pension they are on.

What the OP was decrying (while doing nothing about it) is that her 'friend' is also getting "benefits" - although she doesn't say what.

If the friend were on an income-related benefit, she would need to let the DWP know about her change in income.

However, if she is on a none income-related benefit, she may not need to. As we don't know the details we cannot tell. It may be that the OP doesn't either. Or, maybe her 'friend' knows how judgemental she is and is winding her up Friend may know that the OP enjoys being sentorious and would be straight on Gransnet asking everyone what they think about something that is really no more than gossip.

growstuff

*Why do so many people seem to think that it is ok for younger people to want a comfortable lifestyle, but when older people feel the same they are being grasping or greedy?*

Is this really true? Not in my experience.

If the government has got some older people attacking the young and some younger people attacking the old - or even believing that each group is attacking the other then the government's attempt at "wedge" propaganda has worked.

I will wait to see if the triple lock is reinstated - remember it hasn't been yet and may just disappear in a puff of Johnson's hot air when today and the by-elections are over.

Growstuff How old are you? I find your offensive remarks that just assume that older people will vote for Johnson, just because he has increased our pensions quite beyond the pale.

Older people are as intelligent, thoughtful, and as given to deep political consideration as any other group in the country, and to think we would vote for a party just because they throw us a little bone with ribbon on it is offensive in the extreme.

What makes it more cutting, is that the person not just thinking but expressing these views, is a long time GN member, with whom we have had happy conversations with over a long period of time.

To think that she sees us all as just turkeys voting for Christmas is deeply disillusioning.