On the Fiddle?

Did anyone watch this last night.

Was an interesting reality type show I thought.

Couldnt beleive the penalties were so low for defauding the government though: 50k+ in fraud equals around 200hrs of community service...

£250 p/h isnt a bad rate of pay. Given you have to pay it back if you get caught - but whats stopping them from just bankrupting and clearing the debt. If you are a crook it's a no brainer...

[Stu]

Just caught the end of it.
Don't understand - what penalty do they get if they can't pay it back (Bankruptcy aside) as I saw the "give them 6 months to repay the £80K". What's the point of that? they either saved the money (unlikely) and can repay immediately or they spent it. How are they going to earn £160K p.a. after tax of spare money that they don't need to live off

Bring back the birch

With them its likely they will sell the assets - but whats stopping them selling it at a loss or for cash and then saying they cant pay it back....

What should happen is they should have all their assets seized. The government liquidates it all and they give back whatever balance is owed.

[dirtydog]

i dont think bankruptcy includes benefit debts

Originally Posted by dirtydog

i dont think bankruptcy includes benefit debts

...aha... Spain is looking good

[Stu]

Originally Posted by dirtydog

i dont think bankruptcy includes benefit debts

IIRC of course it would, Bankruptcy is whereby all your assets that can be sold are sold for you & distributed to your debtors in order. I'm sure govt debts like that would be pretty high up the order for being paid.
You can't be put in prison for non payment of debt unless it is willfull i.e. you can pay but choose not to (e.g. council tax protest).
In Bankruptcy you still have to repay your debtors as best you can from income for a year.

[mister c]

Didn't watch it, but got told about it. Thinking of doing it myself if that's all the penalties are........................ I'd be a lot better off moneywise & I wouldn't be grinding my ass to the ground & having any worries

My housemate was telling me about their cousin. She and her partner both cheat the system for everything they've got, and stack credit card bills as high as they can. When it comes to pay up time, they get the slate wiped clean and start over again. Apparentley their house is like a Currys superstore. Demoralising for us workers or what

[G]

I couldnt believe the family with the apparently 'disabled' child, he just looked naughty to me, I didnt catch what was actually wrong with him.

They had a MASSIVE house and a MASSIVE garden with every imaginable toy and adventure set possible......they clearly were not struggling one tiny bit and had a comfortable life.

She rung up the benefit office (who are now paying for a disabled (naughty) son to be kept in a boarding school) who kindly informed her for the last 7 years she had been missing out on £48 a week for her disabled (naughty) little boy. Although she had managed without it quite comfortably they still backdated it in full........to the tune of £18k WTF

The whole system is very very wrong.

Edit: those people had very cool jobs.....I would love to find out how to apply.