EXOTIC LIFESTYLE
Mother of seven, Julie Came, claimed
£127,000 in benefits to fund a luxury lifestyle
of exotic holidays and designer clothes while
living in a £1million house.
She pleaded poverty to get income support,
housing and council tax benefits but her country
home had six horses with stables, three cars
parked in the drive, two tennis courts and home
entertainment systems in every room.
She also had an au pair to help with the children
and had an account at Harrods. A source said,
She went to Orlando with her family
regularly. There was an awful lot of stuff,
designer clothes, quad bikes, pool tables and a
£2,000 bed. It was definitely lavish. |
NOT A SHIRKER
Jobless Mike Blake is about to become a
father of five... at just 19. He and pregnant
wife Kathleen, have never worked and receive
£1,150 a month in benefits. They live rent-free
in a three-bedroom council house but want a
bigger one when baby No5 arrives.
But Mike claimed, "I'm not a shirker. I want
to work. We're not scroungers. Looking after all
these children is a full-time job. It's extremely
hectic. If one of us worked, the other would have
to cope by themselves. That wouldn't be fair.
People say I'm too young to cope and it's been
hard sometimes. When the kids are screaming I've
got in the car, but I never get further than the
end of the road." He can afford
a car?
Mike wants to work in construction, but only when
the children are older. "There's always work
for builders so I can do that," he said.
"But it wouldn't be right to go to work and
leave the kids with Kathleen." They spend
just £60 a week on food. He said, "It's
tough living on a tight budget but we get by and
the kids are healthy and happy." |
TV DOCUMENTARY
MP Ann Widdecombe is to spend a week living with
unemployed father-of-17 Mick Philpott as part of
a TV documentary being made by ITV Productions
for ITV1.
Mr Philpott, who is complaining because the city
council won't provide him with a bigger house,
said, "We have a full house here but there's
always room for one more and we'll make Ann
Widdecombe very welcome." Ms Widdecombe will
stay at Mr Philpott's home for a typical week in
the life of his family. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Mar/07) |
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BENEFIT SCROUNGERS
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Families living in local authority
mansions have become Britains biggest
scroungers, raking in £6million a year from the
taxpayer. One couple with 14 children get their
£1,700-a-month rent paid by the local council and
receive another £50,000 a year in benefits. In another
house, a family of eight adults and nine children live in
luxury. While most of us struggle to meet rent or
mortgage payments, an investigation by the Sunday Express
has exposed a catalogue of families on the fiddle up and
down the country. It discovered six, seven and
eight-bedroom properties used to accommodate huge
households, all at taxpayers expense.
Inquiries under the Freedom of Information Act to 108
town halls found the average cost of providing
accommodation to the biggest family in each council area
was £17,500 a year or £1,450 a month. It means the cost
across all 335 councils in England and Wales is close to
£6million. Margaret Wilson, her partner Eric Jamieson
and their 14 children live in an eight-bedroom house in
Newcastles West End. Ms Wilson has 17 children in
all, though three have grown up and left home. She said
she had no regrets about the huge cost to the taxpayer of
keeping her family.
She said, They have called me the mother of all
scroungers but I couldnt care less. I have 17 kids
and 14 of them still living here. We need the room.
In addition to the rent, the family also claims tax
credit of £619 a week, child benefit of £165,
carers allowance of £58, income support of £37
and housing benefit of £61, a yearly total of almost
£50,000. The rent is paid by Newcastle City Council
under a scheme called Local Housing Allowance. Families
can use a complex formula based on the number of adults
and the age and sexes of their children to claim
entitlement to a house with a specific number of
bedrooms.
The scheme has left councils struggling to find homes big
enough to house families with a large number of children,
and means they often rent more luxurious properties than
would be offered to a smaller family. Investigation
uncovered 19 houses with six, seven or eight bedrooms. In
the London borough of Barnet eight adults and nine
children share a five-bedroom house which costs £3,146 a
month. Seven London councils admitted paying more than
£3,000 a month to put up extended families, including
£4,117 a month for a six-bed home in Wandsworth for a
family of 12. (Source: Sunday Express, Feb/10)
Unemployed father
of 14, Mick Philpott claims that his four-bedroom council
house in Allenton is far too cramped for him to share
with his wife, girlfriend and eight of their children.
The city council has told him that it is unable to help
at the moment, but Mr Philpott said, "They always
come up with the same excuses. They're just not good
enough. I love my country, but at the moment I feel
ashamed of it. I think the country is going down the
pan."
Mr Philpott's girlfriend, Lisa Willis, is expecting his
15th child, and he claims that when two more of his
children visit at weekends he has to sleep in a tent. Mr
Philpott lives with his wife, Mairead. The family live on
£508 per week benefits, which are awarded to the two
women, along with income from Mrs Philpott's part-time
job as a domestic assistant. Mick Philpott admitted he
was jailed for seven years at Nottingham crown court in
1978 for the attempted murder of a woman he had been
living with. He said, "That's one of the reasons no
one will give me a job today."
Mr Philpott said, "People who think I am a
scrounger, do they pay £68-a-week rent and £51-a-week
on council tax? We are paying that, not the council or
the social." Er, £51-a-week council tax for a
four-bedroom house? And where do the £508 a week
benefits come from? Channel Four and Channel 5 are
reportedly interested in contacting him, including Closer
magazine who paid him £2,000 for his "story".
Following the £2,000 payment by Closer magazine for his
story, the city council decided that housing benefit paid
to his girlfriend and his wife should be reviewed.
Councillor Paul Bayliss said, "Mr Philpott seems
quite keen to emphasise his rights and I think it only
right that Mr Philpott is reminded of his
responsibilities, so, to that end, I contacted the city
council's benefits service." It is understood that
the housing benefit will be frozen until the benefits
service has reviewed the situation, subject to receiving
a change of circumstances form from the claimants. Mrs
Philpott said, "We've sent off the change of
circumstances form to the council like we've been asked.
I don't think it's fair but, hopefully, they'll do the
right thing."
According to a report in the Daily Mirror (23 Mar), Mick
owes Derby City Council more than £130 council tax from
2001-2002 and 2004-2005 and is facing a visit from
bailiffs for not paying up. Mr Philpott refused to pay
saying, "They should have sent me the bill before
now." He has also not paid his last rent bill. He
still denies he's a scrounger. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Mar/06)
Mick Philpott's wife and girlfriend are both
pregnant again. He said, "I know I'll get some stick
but I'm prepared for it. People should know before they
attack me that I pay all my council tax, all £712 of
it." How can he be paying his Council Tax if he is
not working? What he means is that he is paying it out of
benefits which in turn comes from the taxpayer.
Mr Philpott said that he had been looking for a job but,
that since his demand for a larger house was reported in
the local and national media, he has not managed to find
work. He said, "I've applied for a few jobs but,
when they realise who I am, that's it." Another
factor which he said was stopping him from getting a job
was his conviction in 1978 for attempted murder. He
served time in prison. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Nov/06)
Father of 17,
Mick Philpott, has landed a job after three years out of
work. He was found three potential jobs by MP Ann
Widdecombe during the week she spent filming a television
documentary with his family earlier this year. One of
them has resulted in an offer of employment with
Burton-based barrel maker Cammac Brewery Support
Services. However, he failed to turn up for his first day
of work. He called TWO weeks later to say he couldn't
start because he needed an operation on his hand.
Cammac managing director Paul Hancox said, "We had
to put the day he did not turn up down as a no-show
because he had not given an excuse. Then he called a
couple of weeks later to say he couldn't start because he
needed an operation on his hand. Mick has since been in
touch this week and said he would be ready to start work
in a couple of weeks' time. We are now aware that he
needed an operation and we are more than happy to leave
the job open for him."
Miss Widdecombe spent a week with the Philpotts filming
Ann Widdecombe Versus, as part of an ITV1 series. During
filming of the show, which focuses on the benefits
system, Miss Widdecombe found him three potential jobs
but Mr Philpott said that one was unsuitable and he was
offered the second, so he did not attend the interview
for the third. Miss Widdecombe, who did not stay with the
family, said she was left unimpressed by the experience,
which had reinforced her views that state handouts should
have strings attached to them.
She said, "My solution remains workfare: if you want
benefits, you have to earn them. After a certain lapse of
time, if you're not working, fine, you still get benefits
for the children but only if you do some community
work." Mr Philpott said both he and his family
struggled to get along with Miss Widdecombe. He said,
"None of us liked her. She was rude to the kids and
would tell them to be quiet even though they were just
being kids." Does he mean unruly and running riot?
After watching the programme it's safe to say that Mr
Philpott has certainly not gained many supporters!
Mr Philpott claimed he was misrepresented in the
documentary and said that it was "edited to portray
him in the worst possible light". Or, as some people
might say, "as he really is", swearing at the
MP and describing her as a "dragon". The
programme highlighted the luxury goods which he had at
his home, including two cars, a pool, widescreen
television and stereo with karaoke system. He claimed he
didn't have two cars, despite them being shown on the
programme, and that he sold his Shogun to buy a sports
car. But why a sports car? Surely a single-decker bus
would be more appropriate with his brood? Regarding his
new job, he said, "I'm back at work in six to eight
weeks."
Cammac Brewery Support Services later withdrew its offer
of a job because he never turned up. Managing director
Paul Hancox said the last time he had heard from him was
in August and that the job offer had been withdrawn. The
Derby scrounger said he had not started work because he
had been offered a driving job, although he wouldn't give
any details about the role, and that his girlfriend was
now employed full-time in the canteen at the University
of Derby. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Aug/07)
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