The mother-of-eight, 36, claimed benefits for her uncle and aunt for five years, despite them living in Pakistan.
She was given a suspended jail sentence at Manchester Crown Court and ordered to do 150 hours’ unpaid work, while officials will try to claw the money back from her.
Figures from the Department of Work and Pensions show that of the £2.8billion lost to fraudsters around half disappears in fake Universal Credit claims and £680million in fraudulent Housing Benefit applications.
Much of the fraud is committed by people failing to reveal they are living with a partner, or lying about their income or how much they have in savings accounts.
