Shh!  Possible use of alias.

Should it be, for example, that it comes to advisor’s attention that someone is claiming Disability Living Allowance under their given name and Income Support under an alias, is this a legitimate thing to do?  The SDP is in payment, the same NINO is being used and there is only one claim to each benefit so fraud is evidently not an issue.

I’m afriad that I can’t find out the reason why this state of affairs is the case as the person is reluctant to give any information.  Should I be suspicious and should I be doing anything other than issuing the usual stuff about full declarations etc to the DWP.  I’m reluctant to contact the DWP asking about a potential hypothosis without having some idea of what to expect. 

Any thoughts or similar experiences will be greatfully received.

Thank you.

Patrick

I don’t know, but I remember from my CAB days that you can change your name at any time, so long as you don’t intend to deceive or defraud another person, or some such.

Mind you, that advice wasn’t addressing the situation of someone wanting to be known by two different names at the same time.

I’m not sure about the same name issue but my view is that you have a duty of confidentiality to your client that should only be broken at the point of a bayonet….and even then!

You should just advise your client of her legal position (rights and responsibilities), her various options and the potential consequences of those options. You should then record meticulously the facts, as you know them and the details of your advice.

Yes I know, Id never have gone to the DWP with it without the express wishes of my client.  Though I am puzzled by it nonetheless.  Mmmm, I quess I’ll have to do some more looking into this.

Thank you.

Patrick.

After further thought.  There is nothing wrong with an alias.  For example, actors, singers etc do it all the time.  Also many married women are registered with their employer with their maiden name but their legal name has changed to that of their husband.  People can have bank accounts in different names.

I’m not sure that a person can have two legal names.  I suspect not.  The question occurs to me.  How has he verified his second name with the DWP?

Just to take the subject a little further:  you may recall the recent death of someone who was pushed off an underground platform into the path of an oncoming train.  He was a well-known immigration lawyer known at work as David Burgess.  In private life she was known as Sonia Burgess.

A person’s name is whatever they choose to call themselves, providing only that no fraud is intended.

And if it is any help to you, I had a client with mental health issues and a learning difficulty who changed his name approixmately once per month. This resulted in his benefit claims being in a variety of different names. Never caused anything other than occasional confusion as NINO, address, DOB. etc, was correct for each claim.

In my view there is a difference between citizen’s relations with each other and the citizen’s relationship with the state.  In dealing with each other we can have as many names as we want no matter what our intentions are.  If we commit fraud then it is that act which is the criminal offence and not the assumption of the second name as long as the adoption of the second name itself did not involve criminal activity. Forgery for example.

Our dealings with the state, however, are a different matter.  We have one legal name at a time, usually tied to our national insurance number.  Thus one name at a time can only be attached to one national insurance number.  If, for example, my name was Mickey Mouse then the state, for all purposes, knows me as Mickey Mouse.  I am perfectly entitled to change my name to, say, Donald Duck and the state then knows me as Donald Duck.  In my view, what I cannot be known by the state as is both Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck at the same time.  The issue of criminality, therefore, is something of a red herring.  The real issue is about the smooth workings of the administration of the state and the avoidance of confusion and complexity.  If the state was to know people by more than one name at a time the taking of the census and the planning of services, for example, would be a nightmare.

I still don’t get how the DWP can allow two different benefit claims to be processed on the one national insurance number under two different names and I suspect there has been some almighty cock up or that the claimant is being very selective with the information he is giving out.

I don’t suppose they would necessarily know though, would they?

In my client’s case, his DLA claim was in one name, his IS claim in another and his HB/CTB claim in a third at one point. To be fair to him, he did notify everyone every time he changed his name (which he did, regularly) but they rarely caught up with it before he changed it again. Eventually, I read him the riot act about it and he fell out with me but I expect he’s still doing it.

“I don’t suppose they would necessarily know though, would they”?  Ten years ago or more, possibly not but in this day and age when different government departments and different executive agencies within a particular government department have greater information sharing powers and do actually talk to each other more then it is more likely that they would know.

I just can’t believe that the Disability and Carers Service and Jobcentre plus (actually, haven’t they now been amalgamated) are each unaware of two different claims in two different names on the same NI number.  And if they were so aware, that they haven’t suspended payment of both benefits pending an investigation.

Or has he actually changed his name and is not just using an alias and, if so, why has the DWP not simply amended its records to ensure that both claim records have the same name on them?