Fact: Around 2000 people sleep on the streets every night in the UK.
Fact: Approximately 130,000 people are homeless in the UK.
We are safe and snug in our homes (regardless of whether you want to exchange properties or not) and don’t really pay attention to the people who are without a home to call their own.
This blog isn’t about homelessness. This blog isn’t about the desperate need the UK has for more social housing.
This blog is about the classic “benefit drop”.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s it was quite a widely publicised practice for the benefit cheat. Get the property. Get the benefits. Live elsewhere. We don’t hear about it quite so much now. Benefits get paid straight in to bank accounts and the amount of paperwork and identity checks a potential new tenant goes through is enough to make a grown man cry. Yet it does still go on.
[ad#Google 200×200 right]My question is this: With the chronic shortage of social housing in the UK, if you knew or suspected a property wasn’t being lived in would you report your suspicions to your council or housing association?
I would. I have done. Somebody in dire need can make use of that property.
Would you or wouldn’t you?
As always we welcome your comments on this article.
Author: CCHE Deb
Hi I agree with you all the way. Infact i have done too. my ex-neighbours were definately dodgy, bins always empty, windows closed (in the hottest days) and never heard a peep on a daily basis. According to my housing association it was all above board – a family was living there (i was living next door and i knew better) so i kept an eye and informed the h/a of what was going on as it made me so mad that the amount of people that would cut off their right arm for a three bed house for the so-called tenants to abuse it and the system. grrrr it majes me mad
Just as a follow up to my above blog … On 30th November 2009 John Healy the minister for Housing launched the first-ever national crackdown on tenancy cheats to recover up to 10,000 council and housing association homes fraudulently sublet, and release them to those in real need. The Audit Commission have suggested that the number of social homes unlawfully acquired or sublet could range from one in 100 to as many as one in 20 in some inner-city areas – totalling as many as 50,000 homes nationwide.
147 councils have signed up to the Government’s first ever national crackdown on housing fraud, including every council in London. With councils working alongside the housing associations in their areas, they will benefit from a share of £4m to set up their own anti-fraud initiatives – including special hotlines and crack squads to investigate allegations of fraud.
I hope my council is one of them. Quite frankly, it seems quite easy to be able to pull the wool over a landlords eyes – no matter how many tip-offs they get about a certain property.
Its about time they started getting tough.
i have just reported people who were allocated a house in july and furnished it and have slept there 10 times since and the property stands empty every day its a disgrace when there are many people who would love a home
I have reported people too, We had one neighbour that told the HA that she needed a 3 bed property because she had a son @10 years old and a daughter @ 11 years old and she was living with her partner. When she moved in she moved in with only her son so her application was fraudulent..She then turned into the neighbour from hell. I reported her to the HA and the police all of whom did nothing. In the end we exchanged because after 2 years of it we could stand no more. So although I will happily report fraudsters I am not optimistic about the outcome!!
This reply is not about empty houses. Its about a person who lives in the house (HA) and her partner stays there more often than not, during the week. She doesnt work, probably claiming benefits, yet her partner has a top of the range 09 plate Range Rover. Is this right??? or is she commiting fraud?