Steady on, wankbrain.
It wasn't a comment on the OP's unfortunate position, but on the likelihood of people being able to game the system. People have had to prove income for various reasons forever. Back in the day, to get a mortgage, a letter from an employer, often fraudulently obtained, was enough to get a bank to bung you the money. Nowadays it's not so simple. You need to pony-up P60s or accounts and if you can't, you don't get the loan. And that's just for a lender who doesn't have access to your officially declared finances. Here, you'd need to bullshit one government department into believing that you have income that another government department knows you don't (or would ask you to pay tax on because you haven't declared it).