I need help understanding benefits and how they are paid and to whom. I would appreciate any help any one could offer me please. I do not get benefits, but I am trying to research on behalf of somebody else. I have a friend who is from another country and is married to an english lady, he has permanent residency here and is entitled to work etc. He doesnt understand what benefits his wife is claiming for them as a family and when he asks her she is deliberately very vague. And what concerns me is she keeps telling him because of him she could go to prison, regarding those benefits?? Unbeknown to her, he is driving around in one of my cars, a BMW, and thinks they will be done for benefit cheating, as she thinks it is his car. How she thinks he can afford a BMW on £6 an hour I dont know!. She keeps saying she is telling the benefit people he is working X amount of hours one month, then XX another month. I have recently seen their joint bank statements and her personal statements. She has her wages paid into the joint account but THEIR benefits paid into her personal account. She has working and child tax credits and child benefit coming into her account in her sole name and also receives a payment from their local council every month too into her personal account. What could this payment be from the council? I cannot see any payments to the council such as council tax from their joint account or her personal account, so i presume she is getting a benefit of some kind for this to? Is it normal for a married couples benefit to be paid solely to the wife in her name alone? Also when I ask him has he ever been down to the benefit office (what ever or wherever that is) or the council himself with his bank statements/pay slips he says NO, his wife takes them for him. I also asked him if he has ever signed anything to do with benefits and he said NO. Is this also usual for the husband to not have to be seen in person by benefit people or sign anything? This all seems very strange to me, but I have never claimed benefits, so am not sure if I am just being paranoid. But I suspect she is not telling the authorities he is back living with her, as he did leave her last year and was out of the country for 6 months. For obvious reasons I dont want to contact the benefits office in case be I drop them both in it. But I would like to be able to give him relevant information on how he should deal with this situation. Thank you in advance for any advice and help regarding this complicated matter.
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