Benefit cheat fined £300

9:29am Tuesday 25th September 2007

A BENEFIT cheat has been fined £300 for failing to declare a change in circumstances which meant she received £2,824 overpayment of benefits.

Joanne Baxter, aged 27, of Boston Avenue, Runcorn, had been claiming housing benefit and council tax benefit since May 2001.

She failed to declare that she was in receipt of working tax credits and that she had started work.

She was fined £300 and ordered to pay £100 towards the council's legal costs when she pleaded guilty at Runcorn Magistrates Court on Monday, September 10.

In April, 2006, Baxter completed a housing benefit and council tax benefit form stating that she lived alone and that her only income was incapacity benefit.

In December, she confirmed the details were still correct in a review form.

She was referred to the council's benefit investigation unit a month later, when the housing benefit matching service discovered she had been receiving working tax credits since April 2006.

She admitted failing to declare working tax credits on her benefit application forms when she was interviewed.

She also said she had failed to inform the council that she worked for Primetime Recruitment from November 6, 2006 to December 22, 2006.

Baxter received a housing benefit overpayment of £2,275.78 and £548.49 council tax benefit to which she was not entitled.

If you know or suspect someone may be committing benefit fraud, you can call the council's fraud hotline on 0800 034 5995.