BENEFIT SCROUNGERS

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Unemployed Robert Bentley blamed his local council for the breakdown of his marriage after he and his wife were forced to live in a three-bedroom house in Bradley Stoke, Bristol, with ten children. He said he and his wife Nichola could be stuck with each other in the "madhouse" indefinitely after the council said it could not accommodate them in separate houses.

His only option could be to declare himself and his family homeless, something he has not ruled out. Mr Bentley said, "It's very difficult for us living in the same house. I'm currently on the sofa downstairs, my wife and the baby are in one bedroom, my two sons are in another and there's six girls in another room."

He added, "There's arguing all the time and there's hardly any room for them to play. We can't get any privacy and nor can my daughter with her baby. So we've split up. The trouble at the moment is we can't sit down and talk things through because we always get interrupted."

Mr Bentley, who gave up working as a delivery driver in 1993, suffers from depression and has only worked for 18 months since then. He and Nichola, who is also unemployed, live off benefits, but both claim they already have "full-time jobs". The couple's home is run by Warden Housing Association, which only provides accommodation to families and individuals nominated by the council.

A council spokeswoman said, "Mr Bentley is on the housing register, however, there is a shortage of five bed properties in South Gloucestershire and we have advised him that it may be some time before his request is met. We have been working with him on other suggested options including presenting himself and his children as homeless and renting privately." (Source: Mail on Sunday, Jul/06)

The Bentleys are to file for a sham divorce so they and their family of 10 kids can get a second free house from the State. The whingeing pair, who run two cars and pay nothing for their well-equipped £190,000 semi in a respectable suburb, will continue living as man and wife.

Robert said, "We can't live in our house as it is. We've asked for a bigger one but the council say we could be waiting for at least two years. We're extremely frustrated, everyone is refusing to help. Our only option is for me and Nichola to file for divorce then me and my kids could declare ourselves homeless to get a second house."

They have ruled themselves out of working. Robert and his 19-year-old daughter are both on incapacity benefit for depression and Nichola says she has to stay at home because she can't trust Robert with the kids on a "down day".

The couple fail to see the problems are of their own making. Widower Robert, who used to have a four-bed council house, moved into Nichola's modern three-bed semi in one of Bristol's suburbs with five of his eight kids after marrying her. The couple's lavish top-hat-and-tails wedding was funded by an interest-free £600 loan from the Benefits Agency.

Despite cramped conditions, the family have a home many would love to occupy. The house is in a quiet cul-de-sac next to a huge field and just a few minutes' walk from schools. There are no drug dealers and there's enough room on the drive for their two estate cars. The house has laminate flooring and the lounge is furnished with an expensive-looking three-piece cream leather suite.

The family couple have a state-of-the-art entertainment centre with widescreen TV, top-make DVD player and video, set-top box and a £280 X-Box. Nichola, who wants MORE children, moaned, "Now we're going to have to get divorced because the authorities won't give us another house."

A spokeswoman for South Gloucestershire Council said, "Mr Bentley is on the housing register. However, there is a shortage of five-bed properties in the district and we have advised him that it may be some time before his request is met. We have been working with him on other suggested options including presenting himself and his children as homeless and renting privately.'' (Source: Sunday People, Jul/06)

Jobless Sue McFadden is demanding a ten-bedroom house from the taxpayer for her family of ten. Between them they get over £32,000 a year in benefits. She complained, "I feel like the old woman in the shoe with all of us cramped into this tiny space. We need a bigger house and we're sick of waiting. I need at least ten bedrooms. The best they've offered is a six bed-roomed house but it's too close to where my ex-husband lives. It's ridiculous. We'd like two bathrooms, a shower room and a fitted kitchen and we need to stay together. We're not going to be split up."

The family have lived in their three-bedroom terrace in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, for 15 years paying the council just £40 a week in rent but now they are demanding a free upgrade into nearby Chester. Benefits include £400 a month cash for behavioural problems for one of the kids who refuses to go to school and needs a home tutor. There is also a £300-a-month disability payment for another, mostly to cover taxi fares when he is excluded from school for hitting and swearing at his teachers.

"He's like the exorcist," Sue admitted, "He once threw a chair at his teacher, you wouldn't believe the swear words that come out of his mouth. It's like living with Mike Tyson." In their kitchen, cupboards are filled to the brim with food and packets of fags and the living room cupboard contains expensive video games. Sue said, "I'm annoyed with the council as the place needs decorating and I want them to put some more cupboards in. Instead of helping us they tell us to throw the clutter out from our living room to make room." (Source: The People, Apr/06)

An article in the News of the World claimed that Chris Price was a layabout dad who lived off handouts from the state and had fathered so many children that he had trouble remembering their names. Chris said, "I have been married three times. But they got the details of my kids wrong. They said I had five kids by my second wife. I actually only had three."

Chris married Christine Lonsdale in 1969 and they had four children, by his second wife Jenny, whom he married in March 1980, he had another three. By his third, and current, wife Patricia, he had nine. Another baby died of cot death 20 years ago and Chris has also adopted Patricia's four children from her first marriage.

Chris said that he has fathered 30 children. He said, "I left home at 14 and joined the fair. You travel around the country and you're bound to pick up girls. There may be children that I don't even know about. When you're young you do that sort of thing. But I have never cheated on any of my wives."

At £550 a week, Chris claims £28,600 a year in benefits, to house and feed his large family. In Derbyshire the average monthly salary is £22,892. What really annoys Chris is being branded a layabout. "I'm not the biggest layabout in Derby or the country," he said. "I was made redundant in 1983 and only got £450 a week in benefits before my last child was born."

Comment:
I understand that it is hard work bringing up such a large family. I have four children that I bring up by myself, which is very tiring. I also go to work but looking at the amount of benefits he claims each week, I wonder why I bother. It is nice to see that Mr Price has beef on his weekly shopping list. It is so long since I have had beef that I have forgotten what it tastes like.

How awful it must have been for Mr Price to have only been receiving £450 per week in benefits before his last child was born. How did he survive? That is nearly £200 a week more than I get for working. I also see he was made redundant in 1983. So were a lot of other people. I am sure that the majority of them have found a job within the last 21 years.

And he suffers with angina and arthiritis. Does he use this as another reason for not working? There are thousands of people out there with illnesses and disabilities who work and would not dream of using the illness as an excuse not to. It is reassuring to know that the country has a system that will help those in need, but should it really be used as a career? Disgusted