Remember to be careful when putting things on your Facebook profile. We know that many of you put a brave face on and most photos don’t tell the full story. However DWP will use screen grabs of you smiling as evidence that you are not in pain. I’m in court today for a fraud case where main evidence is from Facebook and stationary photos from a wedding, odd holiday and pictures of her standing.
It’s that simple dwp have access to your Facebook if they already suspect fraud is being committed. Therefore everyone getting dla/esa / pip should ensure there are no public photos that may be misconstrued showing on their FB or twitter.
Not wanting to scaremonger but we are getting calls/messages from on average 5 people a day accused of fraudulently claiming. We have a private platform away from FB and a secret group if you are worried about posting. Posting is fine however it’s the facebook photos that are used as evidence in all the cases we have represented in. I even had a lady who was generally in a wheelchair dragged into a compliance visit after a wedding photo of her stood, (what they didn’t see was her friends were holding her up) was used as evidence. She won her case after dragging 3 of the friends into court to give evidence, however it took a year, she lost her DLA and car and part time job in the process as had been accused of fraud.
A simple check through your tagged and album photos is often all it takes.
Courtesy of Michelle Fightback4Justice
With thanks to Gail for spotting this
The DWP sent me a letter back in 2014/15 accusing me of earning around £10,000 a month via Facebook and that they’ve stopped my ESA, they allowed to reapply for ESA then took deductions as well as a £50 penalty. My support worker sent them bank statements for the past 12 months proving I wasn’t earning anything but they still argued that I had committed fraud. My support worker contacted HMRC and they investigated it and sent me a letter within 6 months stating that I have never received the money that the DWP were claiming but the DWP still accused me of fraud so my support worker sent the letter again and about 12 months later I receive a letter from the DWP stating that they are paying back the deductions and the penalty fee that they took off me.
I also had to use all my DLA payments for rent and had to rely on family and the day centre that I go to as they do breakfast and hot meals most days of the week. All this caused me a lot of distress and I didn’t receive any kind of apology from the DWP due to their errors. I know another victim who went through a similar situation with the DWP. It seems like it’s a common thing for the DWP to randomly select and accuse claimants of fraud, this can also cause the claimants mental health to deteriorate and eventually commit suicide. The DWP isn’t fit for purpose and have violated Human Rights on many occasions, the DWP needs to be scrapped and the person(s) making the false allegations need to be arrested and charged.
Can the DWP do you for fraud if you claim for depression and they catch you on FB smiling?
Highly unlikely as people can hide their feelings behind a false smile, I do it all the time.
I feel so very distressed at how the DWP and legal department’s can with very little evidence deny benefit o people on only a few pictures. I too am in constant pain and my medical condition will never change. I feel embarrassed when I am asked to get my phicture tken at a Wedding or birthday party. I always try to remain seated or at the most stand for the few seconds it takes for the photograph to be taken. I also never show my white cane as that does cause me concern and deep embarrassment. I’m not sure exactly why but it does. I also suffer from clinical depression and smiling is often the last thing I want to do. Like many disabled people with this medical condition. We “put on a brave face”. We have to, For many reasons. I also wonder if the cases of fraud have increased since the demonization of disabled people by this Government and previous Coalition. I am heartbroken at the cases I have hard of disabled people being charged with fraud and after losing so much including their homes, are found not guilty. Or the DWP don’t procede with the case because they simply can’t and should have never took the person to court at all. All that cost, for nothing. Those cases I have only read here on this site. The never seem to be in the newspaper’s. I wonder why not? We seem to becoming more and more a Faschist state, where the rights of the individual are discarded. In recent surveys the public are under the illusion that there is much more fraud in the welfare system than there actualy is. I feel physically sick when reading about these cases. These people who are severly disabled, who have lost so much with only the recompence of their benefit for proving they are not frauds. Unfair, unjust and simply wrong.
lock down your FB for a start. Never post anything you wouldn’t be happy having everybody know about …ever. If you have your settings correctly on FB then your photo’s are inaccessible
Well that’s not true, my fb settings are on friends only. But as I’m in an injury claims case, an investigator for the other side has taken and screenshot loads of my photos and the one I didn’t like of our young child. I am the owner of said photos, and according to UK law they can’t be used by another person unless they have my permission… so where do I stand
According to UK civil law they can’t take your photos and use them as if they were their own, as you own the copyright, yes that’s true.
BUT viewing your pics and other info and using that information against you is NOT a breach of civil law.
In addition, in order to enforce that, you would have to take them to court and win, and as it’s a civil case, you wouldn’t be able to get legal aid, and you would have to pay your own costs, and possibly also the cost of expensive government lawyers.
So much better just to be cautious in what you post.
I have a question, if we smile at a child or baby, we can do it even if we are in pain, but if we get photographed we can lose our benefits? While watching a re-run of Jeremy Corbyn talking about Eurocrats “saying to him” and a Conservative shouted “Who are you?”, I laughed, it was perfect comic timing, the fact that I was waiting for my Oramorph to kick in.I was in pain, but I laughed.
We stand for photos at weddings and family events, our friends and family hold us up, we are in pain; the photographer tries to keep our sticks and crutches out of shot, we are in pain; we force a smile as it is expected of us, we are in pain. Does it show, no because we don’t want to upset our families or friends, but we are in pain.
Don’t tell us we’re not, until you can provide a measuring device for it, you won’t see it.
I am seeing a lot of these cases on the front-line and I cannot stress enough the importance of getting proper advice. These cases are an absolute nightmare for clients and require a suitably experienced welfare benefit specialist who knows what they are doing in fraud related overpayment allegations. They should work in liaison with good criminal defence solicitors, both should work in tandem to get the best outcome for the client. There are often, due to bungled DWP and LA decision – making processes, plenty of avenues to challenge. Any case concerning alleged disability/incapacity fraud has to be decided only on what the claimant could ‘reasonably have been expected’ to know when reporting a change in their circumstances. With variable conditions this is often difficult to establish and where the DWP loses the plot by citing ‘snapshot’ video evidence which shows the claimant at their best on a good day. The relevance should be challenged, as should any statement made during pressurised interview under cautions conducted by investigators with little or no experience in disability adjudication. Never attend an interview under caution without seeking professional help first, the consequences can be dire; heavy sanctions, a criminal record, possibly imprisonment, asset confiscation proceedings and the humiliation of misleading media exposure. Prosecuting authorities often incorrectly pursue offences under what is known as a section 112 offence of failing to promptly notify (Social Security Administration Act 92 amended by the Fraud Act 2001), case law establishes that the person charged must commit the offence with some degree of criminal intent. In summary – seek proper help!
Before attending Quaker Meeting yesterday I was considering the things that have been ‘getting me down’ in terms of feeling powerless and impotent. (I was a decades long disabled jobseeker before claiming ESA, and from November 1977 to early 2009, my sum-total of waged employment amounted to a grand total of 17 months, of which 11 months had been so part-time that I was reliant on JSA top up over which JSA admin screwed up. My biggest problem really was that I wanted to do paid work and not ‘be a burden’ on anyone, while I was serially let down by lack of sufficient support.)
Then, during the Quaker Meeting it struck me that there are vast differences between being part of a collective and being isolated disabled jobseekers while UK Government demonstrates contempt for disability legislation.
Collectively, we have the Territorial Imperative on our side, as I read on the liner notes to a song on Pete Seeger’s ‘Rainbow Race’ album in the 1970’s for a song called ‘Uncle Ho’.
“‘Uncle Ho’ is a song Pete wrote after reading Robert Ardrey’s The Territorial Imperative. The thought in that book, coupled with Ben Franklin’s advice, “Love your enemies, they teach you your faults,” culminated in this sardonic Seegerism. Since Uncle Ho is the ‘enemy’, he is a natural teacher, and one of the things he taught was that men [sic will fight like hell to defend their own territory.”
What we are engaged in is nothing short of a struggle for survival, albeit a nonviolent one in my case; and our campaigning works wonders in pointing out how screwed up the system that we need protection against is. But we also experience burnout at times, made worse by the difference between what we get on State Benefits and what someone can get for being taken on by Maximus as ‘Head of Customer Experience’.
I too have just gone through 2 years of hell, after being accused of fraud,after my ex husband of 34 years of marriage left me for another woman.l had no idea he was setting me up to report me because he was a vengeful after l found out the truth..he was my carer and he benefited from my allowance since 1998. I was covertly followed for 19 days, both on foot & by video. I was left on my own with no family, and was told that l was more capable if doing activities since my carer left me. They received the report anonymously but l knew it was him. I was interviewed under cautions twice, the third time l was unfit as l took an overdose. I am 64, l was going through a divorce & trying to understand why this was happening to me.l had to sell my home and deal with depression. My car was taken, my dla stopped and pension credit, housing benefit. I was being asked for £80.000 overpayment since 1998, l appeared in the magistrates court only to be adjourned, as the CPS had mno papers. I was left waiting for 4 hours knowing that l had mobility issues, and the last person to see the judge.l have tried to live on my pension alone for those 2 years, had to put together a strong case with the help of the CAB, winning a first- tier tribunal, then heard from my solicitor that the CPS were not continuing with my case, as there was not enough evidence to get a conviction.l had 585 pages of medical evidence also GP letters of support, but the DWP still wanted me to be prosecuted. I then had to see if the DWP was still going to appeal the statement of reasons from the tribunal. The criminal case was separate to the civil case, which was very confusing and exhausting. I heard only recently that the legal team was not going to appeal the reasons and that they concluded l was still entitled to my dla. Also the arrears they owe me.lts disgusting how much public money as been spent on the fraud investigation & the nightmare 2 years of hell they put me through. I could be dead by now, but l was not going to just lie down easily for them to win. Do not take your mobile phone into any interview, as they can ask to look at it for messaging etc. They even look at the bottom of your feet, to see if you have hard skin on the bottom, which they take as you walk a lot of the time, especially if you claim mobility allowance. Over the 2 years l have learnt what the DWP & the fraud team are capable of, l have over 1,000 pages of fraud evidence which they numbered for there case, so why didn’t they win, l will tell you why, l was telling the truth!!!! and l was not a grey old pensioner/ push over and l think they knew l was not going to give up my fight. It was like David and Galliah..so this was only a small part of what l went through, so be careful who you tell, even family & friends if you are on any benefits, believe me people will report you because they can’t be reconigsed. I am still trying to accept what they did to me, but l am sure l won’t get any apology. Always appeal because they don’t expect you to, and find the strength to keep going, l did and WON….
You need to see Leigh Day, special solicitors, that’s not the correct wording but the Company Leigh Day are very good at unusual cases. They really can help but I’m not sure how much they would charge.
Good advice, but do they work pro bono? Disabled people can’t afford solicitors!
For anyone needing legal advice we suggest Citizens Advice as a first port of call – and there is also the group fightback for Justice https://www.fightback4justice.co.uk/