Tracy Roberts, from Chickenley, claimed over £34,000 in income support and housing and council tax benefits despite earning up to £600 a week working for debt collectors. She even went along to focus interviews set up to help her get back into work.
She started receiving benefits while unemployed but carried on claiming after returning to work in 1993. The DWP said the charges only dated back to April 2002 because Roberts' employer had no earlier records. DWP payment records from 2003 onwards showed an overpayment of £34,630.
The prosecution said Roberts did not declare her job in claim forms or regular reviews. She also claimed to have been out of work for 14 years at the first of five focus interviews in April 2007: "It was a commission basis that she was working on. She at times would receive nothing each week, other times £600 a week but on average it was about £200."
After the fraud was discovered Roberts told DWP investigators she thought she had to work more hours before declaring a job but later accepted it had been wrong to keep claiming.
The judge said that her children needed a lot of support and Roberts was now the main carer for her 30-year-old son, who was being treated for a brain tumour. The court heard she had paid back over £1,800.
Sentencing Roberts to 16 weeks suspended for a year, Judge Batty said: "You have to know, and others have to know, that when you defraud the benefits agencies out of this amount of money the courts view it very seriously."
He said he accepted the claim was not fraudulent from the start and had taken into account her guilty plea and circumstances. She was also given a 12-month supervision order with 150 hours unpaid work.
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