DOLE FREELOADERS

SCROUNGERS GET 44K A YEAR - CASE NO1.

Unemployed scroungers Carl and Samantha Gillespie who have 12 children and live in a five bedroom house in Reading paid for by the local council.  The family live off £44,000 a year in benefits and say they would earn LESS in work than on state handouts.  

Neighbours reacted with outrage last night after an immigrant mother of ten who receives £34,000 a year in benefits demanded that the council gives her a larger home. Latvian Linda Kozlovska, 31, arrived in Britain with three of her children in 2008 and moved into a council-maintained three-bedroom house. Four years later, however, the single mother says she is unhappy living there – because she has had three more children and four others have moved over from Latvia. ‘I have ten children living here with me,’ she said. ‘I’m the only adult. I am on the council waiting list, but we’re still here. ‘They don’t have a big enough house.  I want a bigger house. I don’t like it here. When we moved in it had bed bugs.’ Her neighbours are fuming. They say up to 18 people lived in the terraced home at one point, creating mess outside. One claimed the property was, essentially, a ‘halfway house’ for Latvians when they first arrive in the country. Another neighbour, Neil Blanchard, 39, said: ‘This kind of thing is beyond belief. If they want a bigger house they should have to earn it like everybody else.

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Take, for example, Iona Heaton, a mother of nine from Blackburn, whose story was revealed in Febuary 2012. Mrs Heaton might be a poster-girl for everything that is wrong with the current welfare system. Every year she receives almost £30,000 in benefits. By comparison, the average salary in Britain last year was just £26,000. Her council house has a flat-screen TV, a computer, a Nintendo Wii, a digital camera and iPhone, and she takes her family to Pontins for two weeks every year. Yet she feels hard done by: the council, she says, should give her a bigger home.

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A family of twelve who rejected a string of council houses have finally got their dream home - an eight-bedroom house courtesy of the taxpayer. Donna Harrison, 35, and Fabian Bland, 43, had been squashed into a terraced house in Bradford with ten children aged between two and 15.

The family turned down several four-bedroom houses offered to them by their social landlord because they had set their heart on a former children’s home. Both parents are unemployed, so their £133-a-week rent is paid through housing benefit. Donna and Fabian receive £500 per month in child benefits and child tax and £160 per fortnight for Jobseeker's Allowance, and their rent in housing benefit.

A drummer in a marching band who claimed he could walk no more than 15 yards and couldn’t even tie his own shoelaces has been exposed as a benefits cheat, after investigators secretly filmed him marching through the streets. Alexander Clarkson was caught marching through Great Harwood in Lancashire in full Scottish pipe band regalia and kilt. At the same time, the 63-year-old was receiving thousands of pounds every year by claiming he could walk only short distances and was always falling over because of his disabilities.

A mother has escaped jail despite pretending she had eight children in a £42,000 benefits scam.

Sarah Jane Smith, 41, even pretended that she and her two real children were disabled so that she could claim even more cash. Yes despite the false claims, stretching back to 2005, Smith, from Manchester, was spared jail after the judge heard she was fighting breast cancer for the second time. Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court was told that it was the second time Smith had carried out the scam. She had previously cheated taxpayers out of £27,854 in a four-year scam which began in 2005.

A mother-of-six who was jailed yesterday for claiming more than £96,000 in benefits while she had an 'eye-watering' £173,000 in the bank was following a traveller tradition, a court heard. Helen Ryan, 40, from Cardiff, pleaded guilty to the fraud at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday and was jailed for 24 weeks. Over a 10-year period, the out-of-work traveller had claimed around £88,000 in income support and £8,000 in council tax benefits.

Britain's most feckless father is today expected to see the birth of his 16th child by 14 different women, with another one on the way in a matter of weeks. Unemployed Jamie Cumming and his new girlfriend were expecting the baby to arrive on Friday, but the teenage mother-to-be was sent home from hospital the following day after doctors found she was having a ‘slow labour’. Cumming, 34, from Dundee, has already fathered 15 children with 13 different mothers, and is expecting a further child with another woman in January.

A benefits claimant whose partner is expecting her 12th child boasted today that they 'have enough for a football team'. Out-of-work Gary Bateman, 46, and Joanne Shepherd, 36, have been moved into a free five-bedroom house in which to raise their brood. The £1,200-a-month rent on their home is covered by the more than £30,000 a year they claim from the taxpayer.

An illegal immigrant who claimed to be paralysed from the neck down but was filmed dancing at his wedding cheated more than £400,000 in benefits, a court heard yesterday. But even though Mohamed Bouzalim, 37, has admitted dishonestly entering the country and fraudulently exploiting the welfare system, legal sources said they will face an ‘uphill battle’ to deport him. There is a strong likelihood the Moroccan will be able to remain in the UK by claiming he has a right to family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights,immigration sources said. When Bouzalim came to Britain in June 2001, he had no papers and claimed to be an Afghan national whose father had been executed by the Taliban, Isleworth Crown Court in west London was told. Using the name Mohamed Amir Hussini, he successfully claimed asylum before constructing the extraordinary lie that he was paralysed and required 24-hour care, receiving £66,000 a year in benefits. Other members of his family have also been convicted of fraud and live in the UK.

A benefit cheat used fraudulent claims to build up a property portfolio worth half a million pounds. Social worker Jennifer Myrie and members of her family appeared at Basildon Crown Court, Essex, today after they received £140,000 that they were not entitled to. The money was used to pay off mortgages on three houses in South London that were then sold on for a total of £533,000 in 2006. At one stage Myrie lived in a council house that she rented out privately and used two different names so that she could pose as landlord and tenant on another property. She was jailed for 18 months today at Basildon Crown Court where she admitted 19 different counts of benefit fraud.

An overweight benefit cheat who was too fat to fit in a court will not be forced to wear an electronic tag because it will not fit round her ankle. Clinically obese Beverley Douglas, 44, had jobs as a CCTV operator and a bus driver which earned her a salary of around £16,000 but she carried on raking in handouts for five years.The former businesswoman also faked tenancy agreements to pocket rent on two properties she never lived in. Douglas, a mother of four, collected £34,000 in benefits, the court heard.

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Bentleys, 42ft yachts and restored farmhouses in France are not generally considered to be the hallmarks of life on benefits in Britain today.

Yet BBC Panorama has tracked down claimants leading double lives. One man claims benefits for his rent on a council flat in Croydon yet was discovered living in Devon and running a village pub - commuting between the two in a Bentley. Another man, claiming incapacity benefit for a bad back, told an undercover reporter about his trans-Atlantic sailing trip from South Carolina to the Azores on his yacht and his work in restoring a farmhouse in Normandy. Experts estimate that £4bn of taxpayers' money is being lost to benefit fraud, tax credit fraud and social housing scams in the UK each year. Overall, government is losing an estimated £22bn to fraud and error across all departments. The man with the yacht and the French farmhouse is Graham Axford, 57, who has been on incapacity benefit since 1996 after he injured his back in a motorcycle accident. Because of that he has also been getting benefits that cover most of his rent and council tax on his council flat.

A mother of nine claimed almost £63,000 in benefits by pretending she was single despite living with her husband in their caravan.

Chavelle Price, 33, told the council she lived alone on a travellers’ site which featured on the Channel 4 series My Big Fat Gipsy Wedding last year.

But investigators discovered she was actually living with her  husband Patrick Dunne on the Coven Heath site, near Wolverhampton.

She originally told the Department for Work and Pensions that she was living in her parents’ caravan after separating from her husband in 1997.

However, all of her children, born between 1997 and 2008, had Mr Dunne listed as the father on their birth certificates.

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A mother claimed £100,000 in benefits by pretending her young son was suffering from cancer, a court heard today.

She even convinced the boy himself that he had the disease, and shaved his head to make it look like he was undergoing chemotherapy, it is alleged.

The woman, who is from Berkeley, Gloucestershire, removed the hair from his eyebrows and made him wear a bandana as part of the deception, a hearing was told.

It is claimed she then pocketed cash from a carers’ allowance, tax exemptions and disability benefits.

The court heard that the mother of five, aged 36, who cannot be named for legal reasons, forged medical notes from doctors for her fraudulent claims.

She is accused of preventing the boy and his sister from taking part in school activities as they thought they were too unwell.

Melanie Nicholas and Andrew Ballinger are in their late 30s but neither has worked sinced they were teenagers. Mr Ballinger is the father of 5 of Miss Nicholas's 6 children and shares a 5 bedroom home with her in North Wales. Their income from benefits is just short of £700 per week, which includes a disability allowance for Miss Nicholas's heart condition, a mobility payment, income support, child benefit and council tax benefit. Miss Nicholas says her heart condition means she can't do manual work also she is unable to work in a office due to potential health problems like dust. Mr Ballinger says he can't work because he can't read nor write.

More than £4 billion of taxpayers' money is being spent on housing benefit across London - an increase of more than 40 per cent in five years. The new figures will fuel growing concern that private landlords are profiting from a system threatening to spiral out of control. In the 12 months to April this year, £4.15 billion was spent by the Government on housing benefit in London, compared with £2.94 billion in 2003.

A family of refugees has moved into a £2million home in one of the country’s most exclusive neighbourhoods at taxpayers’ expense.

Unemployed Saeed Khaliif is being handed almost £8,000 a month to pay the rent on his house, one of the most expensive ever to be funded by housing benefit.

The Somali refugee, 49, demanded to be moved to the six-bedroom property in West Hampstead, North-West London, with his wife Sayida and their children after deciding their previous accommodation was inadequate.

SEVEN CHILDREN BY FOUR WOMEN AND PROUD TO BE JOBLESS.

Although he has six young children and another on the way, the burden of parenthood does not lie too heavily on Steven Clark's shoulders.  He is 35 and has been jobless since leaving school.  He has had plenty of time to have children with three different women who are also all unemployed and on welfare.  The total cost to the taxpayer of his actions are 753.90 pounds per week.  This figure excludes the extra housing required.

A deported Nigerian conman with 131 different identities sneaked back into Britain to carry out a £1million crime, a court heard yesterday. The man, who calls himself David Peters, was jailed for fraud and deported to Nigeria seven years ago. But six months later he took advantage of flaws in the immigration system, returning under a different name and was promptly being granted UK citizenship. Peters, one of Britain's most prolific identity fraudsters, used the identities to trick banks, mortgage lenders and government agencies into giving him money. The 30-year-old used it to fund a luxurious lifestyle, buying an £80,000 Porsche Carrera, a Mercedes and a Lexus. When police caught up with him, they found a large collection of designer shoes, expensive watches and a state-of-the-art home entertainment system at his £300,000 three-bedroom home in north-west London. Yesterday Peters was jailed for five years and eight months at the Old Bailey after admitting 30 offences. He pleaded guilty to charges of fraud amounting to £230,000 but detectives believe he could have netted at least £1million.Passing sentence, Judge Gerald Gordon said: 'I have not the slightest idea what your actual name is but, whoever you are, some of the counts paint an appalling picture.' The judge said Peters had used false documents to obtain money and benefits 'on a vast scale using a huge number of false identities'. Peters was jailed in April 2004 for fraud and deported in July under the name of Goke Adeyemi. He returned in December 2004 and was given UK citizenship under the name of Oluesyi Adebayo. This could not happen now because deportees are fingerprinted.
Police think he may have netted as much as £1million during throughout his frauds

Police think he may have netted as much as £1million during throughout his frauds

Peters used fake passports, driving licences and National Insurance numbers to create false identities. He then fraudulently applied for £168,575 in benefits from three London councils, claiming to be tenant and landlord at the same address. He obtained a £250,000 mortgage for a house in Edgware, north-west London, which he shared with his wife and two children. He successfully applied for 74 UK driving licences under false names at post offices across the country.

A jobless mother of six already living on handouts invented 15 more children to claim more than £60,000 in a benefits fraud.

Her brazen operation was rumbled only when investigators realised she had made claims for ten new 'foster children' in just six months.

Kerry Melia, 30, was already legitimately claiming tax credits for her children when she submitted the false claims for non-existent youngsters.

She was able to get away with it because no one from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, who run the system, checked whether the children existed.

The greedy mother was jailed for eight months yesterday after a court heard she had continued to submit claims for a further five 'foster children' even though she was under investigation.

A mother from Camden is living in Britain's most expensive council house worth £2million, it emerged today. Ruth Ben-Adir, 44, is being housed in the historic Victorian lodge which sits on the edge of a 29-acre estate in Highgate Village.

The mother-of-one moved into the Grade II-listed building while repairs are being carried out on her council home in Kentish Town. The lodge is situated in Waterlow Park and is close to homes belonging to personalities such as George Michael and Sting, as well as Government minister Tessa Jowell.

A gas explosion which blew the roof off a house inadvertently exposed a scam by a Nigerian couple who fraudulently claimed £80,000 in benefits and funnelled the money back home to set up a string of businesses. Mini cab driver Nura Kamara, 34, and care worker Hadiza Mohammed, 31, had their cover quite literally blown when they applied for temporary accommodation following the blast in September last year. The explosion, started by another tenant who lived in the converted three-storey Victorian property in South Norwood, London, left five families homeless after the flats were declared unsafe.

A council chief who retired on a gold-plated £50,000-a-year pension on the grounds of ill-health walked into a new publicly funded £260,000 job four months later.

Yet despite sparking a fresh row over extravagant town hall salaries, Nick Johnson – who earns more than twice as much as the Prime Minister – insists his pay packet is ‘really not a lot’. Mr Johnson, 57, is eligible for the full income from his final salary pension scheme because he left his £203,000 job as chief executive of Bexley Council in South London on health grounds.

A MILLIONAIRE benefits cheat who claimed almost £37,000 in handouts walked free from court yesterday – so she could care for her mother, who is also accused of fiddling. Aunsya Parmar, 51, her mother and two brothers owned at least 10 houses worth more than £1million. But for seven years she failed to declare her interests in the properties and continued to beg for help from the state. When police raided one of her houses, they found carrier bags stuffed with banknotes worth more than £110,000.

Officials expected her to get a jail term but her 24-week sentence was suspended for two years, and she was ordered to carry out 100 hours unpaid work. Parmar and her relatives were to have faced Leeds Crown Court together for allegedly collectively claiming £98,000 to which they were not entitled. But her elderly mother Umiya was deemed too unwell and her two brothers died before the case came to court. Another hearing will be held to determine who owned the banknotes found in bags at the home of Parmar’s mother. The cash could be used to reimburse public funds. Parmar pleaded guilty to fraudulently claiming income support, council tax and housing benefit.

Residents are petitioning to have Jane and Lee Houghton, their five youngest children and a grandson evicted. But with a new bathroom and kitchen on its way, paid for by the council, and a house filled with numerous games consoles, computers and TVs they have no intention of moving. And Mr Houghton yesterday insisted they need more money. The 42-year-old is paid £150 a month disability allowance because he has a 'personality disorder' which makes him 'kick off in crowds'. He has not worked since 1999 and says drinking alcohol helps him cope with his condition. He has been threatened with an Asbo for violent behaviour as well as being drunk and disorderly and has 24 previous convictions. The comfortable lifestyle of the Houghton family is funded by benefits including £640 income support, £212 carer's allowance a month as well as Mr Houghton's £150 disability allowance. Their four-bedroom semi- detached house in Crawley, West Sussex, is paid for by housing benefit.

A BENEFITS cheat who ripped off nearly £50,000 has got 106 YEARS to pay it back.

Lee-Anne Jennings, 42, was ordered to settle her debt at just £9 a week. The mother of three raked in the cash over five years by not telling authorities her husband had moved back in with her. Her scam was rumbled after Department for Work and Pensions investigators received an anonymous tip-off. They found that a car outside Jennings's house in Southampton was registered to husband Roy - who took home £300 a week as a lorry driver and later worked for ship repairers. Jennings claimed income support legally after Roy left her in 2000, Southampton Crown Court was told.

But she did not own up when they were reconciled four years later.

A MUM who has five children by three dads - all taken into care after she was jailed for neglect - is pregnant AGAIN. And jobless Lavine Samma, 28, vowed yesterday: "I'll keep having kids until I'm given a council house." Lavine's baby will be her sixth in nine years. All her brood so far have been taken away from her after she was convicted of neglect when her eldest was found to have scratches and bruises. She was jailed for a year in 2007 but served only half her sentence and has carried on getting pregnant since her release. Lavine now hopes to persuade social workers to let her bring up the new tot by her asylum-seeking boyfriend Damien Sewell. The pair currently live in a local authority flat in Newton, Birmingham, and she said: "I have been told the only way I can get a house is by having children to care for. "If they keep taking them from me I will just keep having them - again and again." Jobless Damien, the father of three of her children, moaned: "The courts and council are against us. We are being discriminated against." He came to the UK from his native Jamaica on a short-term holiday visa in 2002. He failed to return and is now claiming asylum. Damien explained: "Life is much better here."

A CHEATING couple who owned four homes worth almost £600,000 provoked ­outrage last night after they escaped jail over a massive ­benefits scam. Kevin Wraith and his partner Emily Morris lived in the lap of luxury at taxpayers’ expense. They pocketed £85,000 in fraudulent claims, telling the authorities that Morris, 34, was a penniless single mother of four.

Britain's most feckless father is having another four children - and is apparently 'engaged' for the third time in three months. Unemployed father-of-10 Keith Macdonald - who pays just £5 a week to support his offspring - will cost taxpayers more than £2 million by the time all his youngsters reach 18. He has got two new girlfriends pregnant, is having another baby with an ex and a fourth woman who was already known to be having his child has discovered that she is having twins.

A mother who claimed thousands of pounds in benefits despite her husband earning £130,000-a-year has walked free from court. Lisa Spindler, 40, raked in £22,500 in benefits as she claimed to be a single mother struggling to make ends meet. But she was in fact living with her high earning husband who made £130,000 a year.

Spindler admitted fraudulently claiming benefits for three years between 2006 and 2009 and was handed a suspended prison sentence at Basildon Crown Court in Essex.

A SCROUNGER who fiddled £10,000 in benefits claiming she was a single parent was caught after appearing on WIFE SWAP with her fiancé. Mum-of-two Kelly Jones, 23, failed to tell the authorities that she had been living with her bus driver lover for 18 months. She illegally pocketed £4,976 in housing benefits, £3,614 in income support and £1,171 discount on her council tax bill. But she was caught out when she went on Channel 4's Wife Swap with Steve Jones who she married in April this year.

A BENEFITS cheat who claimed he was “virtually unable to walk” gave the game away by dancing the jitterbug on a night out. Unemployed Terence Read, 61, fraudulently pocketed almost £20,000 in state handouts after insisting arthritis had left him wheelchair bound. But he was filmed by investigators jiving and twisting the night away with a glamorous partner at a big band and rock and roll competition. Dressed flamboyantly in pork-pie hat, bow tie, spats and long-jacket zoot suit, he was videoed executing a series of energetic moves including the jitterbug, Charleston and Lindy Hop as an audience roared their approval. Dance judges at a Manchester leisure complex gave him glowing reviews as he and his companion completed a vigorous five minute high-kicking routine before taking a bow. Read, who boasted that he was “an authority on all things swing”, started claiming benefits in 1995 because, he maintained, he suffered from arthritis and depression. But after Department for Works and Pensions officials heard about his dancing hobby they started checking on his true condition, amid allegations that he had been overpaid up to £30,500 in disability benefits.

A FRAUDSTER from Hornsey who rented luxury cars to gang members while claiming £60,000 in benefits has been jailed. Tyrone Somerszaul, of Kings Gate Mews, used three different alter egos — Tyrone Simmons, Dean Miller and Sean Kimani Taylor — to collect a fleet of high end cars including a Lamborghini, Ferrari, Rolls Royce, and Aston Martin. He then leased the cars to other criminals with a "no questions asked" policy.

His bogus firm helped him live a lavish lifestyle propped up by a long-running fraudulent claim for incapacity benefit using one of his aliases.

JAIL sentences handed to a couple who carried out a £100,000 benefit fraud were backed by campaigners last night. Natalie Tear and her husband John, who have four children including a two-week-old baby, wept when they were sentenced. A court heard how Mrs Tear had milked the system for 10 years by claiming to be a single mother struggling to make ends meet. But she had been married the whole time, living with her husband who worked for the National Health Service. Mrs Tear, 31, was jailed for nine months and her 32-year-old husband was handed a six-month sentence last Friday.

A FATHER whose soldier son was killed in Afghanistan lashed out last night at the huge state handouts given to rabble-rousing Anjem Choudary. The Muslim cleric's untaxed income of £25,740 is thousands more than 21-year-old gunner Jack Sadler was earning before he was blown up by a roadside bomb. And Jack's outraged dad Ian, 60, said: "These lads don't get paid what they deserve because they sacrifice so much. Choudary just doesn't deserve the money full stop. Whose team is he cheering for anyway? It's appalling there are young soldiers out there serving Queen and country and they're getting a pittance while this man takes his handouts. It's wrong these people's lives are being subsidised. It's utterly galling.

A BENEFITS scrounger with 10 children who claims £30,000. a year from the state was condemned by his own daughter yesterday. Jessica Bateman, 18, said she was ashamed of her “lazy, useless” father and branded him “nothing more than a sperm donor”. She was angered after hearing how father Gary, 46, and his partner – who is pregnant with her 12th child – were given a £300,000 five-bedroom house by council officials because he complained their old home was too small.

Shopworker Jessica, who is from a previous relationship of her father, has had little contact with him after he walked out on her mother when she was five. But she has learned that he spends up to £60 a time in fast-food restaurants while his council house is kitted out with the latest gadgets and flat-screen TVs.

A single mother with three children has been placed by her local council in a £1.5million mews house. The luxurious three-storey property, in the heart of London's exclusive Kensington, costs an astonishing £1,125 a week to rent - a cost being met by housing benefit, at taxpayers' expense. Appalled neighbours say the house concerned is the biggest on the central yet quiet street. Boston Ivy climbs its walls, and it features a juliet balcony and a large garage.

With its fine gothic architecture and prime location, it is no surprise the charming Victorian lodge is valued at well over £2million. Grade II-listed, it nestles on the edge of a 29-acre estate and boasts its own statue of Hercules. Neighbours include George Michael and Sting. But it is, in fact, a council house – the most expensive in Britain – and a single mother has been living there rent-free for two years. Ruth Ben-Adir, 46, moved into the three-bedroom property with her son Kingsley, 24, after town hall officials decided that the refurbishment of a sports centre next to their home in Kentish Town, north London, would disturb them. The work finished three months ago, but the family is still living in The Lodge in Waterlow Park, in the Highgate village area in the north of the capital. Property experts estimate it could fetch up to £2,000 a week if rented out – meaning their stay would have cost £208,000 if they had had to pay.

A LAYABOUT dad bragged yesterday about the prospect of becoming Britain's youngest grandad.The scrounger, 29, said he was chuffed his 14-year-old daughter was pregnant and crowed: "It's quite mad... I'm about to be a grandad. "I was 14 when my daughter was born - and now she's having a baby." The schoolgirl became pregnant by her 15-year-old boyfriend and is expected to give birth in August.

The pair, from South Wales, are pupils at the same comprehensive school and have been dating for several months. She announced her news to pals on Facebook by updating her status to "looking for a pram with the mr". Her jobless dad - who is separated from her mum - said proudly: "She is very young but was determined to keep the child. "We were not going to force her into doing anything else. We don't want her to hate us. "She is not the only girl at her school to become pregnant or to have a baby.

A jobless family of 11 on £42,000-a-year in benefits were handed a new £300,000 seven-bedroom house just three doors down from their old 'cramped' house.

Kevin and Sharron Bishop receive £3,500 of taxpayer's money every month for themselves and their nine children. They had been living in a four-bedroom property but this weekend their neighbours watched in disbelief as the family carted their all belongings a few yards down the road to the new house.

A FECKLESS layabout has fathered eight children by eight different mothers – with two more on the way. Jobless Keith Macdonald sparked outrage last night after it emerged that he does not see any of his children and does not give any money to their mothers, meaning taxpayers will have to foot the massive £2million benefits bill.

In a damning example of Shameless Britain, Macdonald, whose ninth and tenth babies are due next year, whinged: “Why should I pay a penny for them?” Just £5 a week is deducted from his incapacity benefit, which he claims for a bad back, to go towards the children’s upkeep. Last night critics condemned 25-year-old Macdonald, who has been branded the “Incapacity Casanova”.Matthew Sinclair, director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be furious that their money is being spent supporting one man to have so many children, with so many different women, without any apparent attempt to provide for them himself.

With ten children and a rent-free house, Pete and Sam Smith are just one of the families who will be hit by a crackdown on limitless handouts. The couple, both unemployed, rake in £95,000 a year - and even have breakfast delivered to the door each morning, courtesy of the taxpayer. Last month it emerged that the Smiths had been moved by the local authority from a house in Bath, which the landlord accused them of wrecking, to the large house in the Bristol suburb of Kingswood. But Mrs Smith, 36, complained that the house was too small, the breakfast portions too stingy and said she could afford to buy her brood only one Nintendo Wii games console between them. She claims she is also forced to pay £100 a week to keep her five cats in a cattery. 'It's very cramped here,' she told the News of the World. 'We've been told we might not be given a new house for another nine months, which is ridiculous. 'The breakfast supplied by the council isn't like proper hot food. It's usually eggs, beans, tinned tomatoes and cereal, which isn't really enough for us all and we have to heat it up ourselves.' The couple have not worked since Mr Smith, 40, resigned from the Army in 2001 to care for his wife, who has curvature of the spine, and their children.

At that time they had three. Mrs Smith receives up to £140-a-week child benefits for her children aged from four months to 14 years. The family also get disability living allowance, carer's allowance, tax credits and income support. The total with child benefits is £44,954. They then receive a £950-aweek bed-and-breakfast deal where the council pays for breakfasts delivered to their home, which comes to £49,400 – a total of £94,354 a year.

I need £60,000 a year to beat benefits': Mother with four bedroom home on the state says work doesn't pay.
She lives in a four-bedroom townhouse on a new estate, with an £18,000 Mazda in the drive and a 42in high definition plasma television in the living room.

Kellie Cottam’s lifestyle may hint at hard work and success. But the Sky+ satellite, games consoles and toys scattered on the floor were all amassed not from long hours in the office, but through the £37,000 a year – tax free – she rakes in through benefits. The single mother-of-four yesterday described the welfare system as her ‘breadwinner’ and said she would need to earn an annual salary of £60,000 to make it worth her while to work and maintain her lifestyle.

AN Afghan mum of seven has been charged with swindling benefits - while living in a £1.2million council-funded mansion. Immigrant Toorpakai Saiedi, 38 - whose seven-bed "mother of all council houses" was exposed two years ago in The Sun - is due in court on Thursday. She is accused of hiding a bank account awash with dosh while taxpayers forked out £30,000 for her council tax and income support. The prosecution comes after she and hubby Haji, 48, were allowed to continue living in the flash house despite uproar. Last night a source at the Department of Work and Pensions confirmed: "Mrs Saiedi is facing charges of fiddling claims for both council tax allowance and income support. It is expected to be a high-profile case in view of the level of benefits her family have been claiming and the lifestyle they have enjoyed at the expense of the taxpayer." The mum, who came to Britain in 2001, was allowed to privately rent the vast West London house because Ealing council did not have one big enough for her family.

Father of 11 quits his £27,000 a year job to make more on benefits.

A teacher has given up work to stay at home with his wife and 11 children because he is better off living on benefits. The large part of his income is now job seekers allowance - even though he quit his job. In all Salim receives £29,096 a year in handouts for doing nothing and is planning to have a 12th child.

The family receive £19,000 a year job seekers allowance even though Salim is not looking for one. They get £6,600 child benefit, £2,496 in free school meals and £1000 council tax relief. Salim married his cousin Noreen who has never worked since marrying Salim. Salim said "this is what is great about Britain, in Pakistan the government does not look after you".

Neighbours of a jobless family put up in a £2.1million townhouse courtesy of the taxpayer last night called for them to be evicted. They said it was a 'disgrace' that former bus conductor Abdi Nur, his wife and seven children could claim £2,000 a week in housing benefit to live in one of London's more exclusive neighbourhoods.

The family had previously been satisfied living in a smart five-bedroom house in Brent, North-West London, at a cost of £900 a week in benefits. But last month, Mr Nur spotted a vacancy in nearby Notting Hill in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and was given permission by the council to upgrade. Mr Nur, 42, and his wife Sayruq, 40,sought asylum in Britain in 1999 from Somalia, where he worked for the Red Cross. He has worked in Britain as a bus conductor, but lost his job 18 months ago, and is now looking for jobs in 'warehouses or food production'. The Nurs' new house is owned by a company based in the British Virgin Islands. The average full-time wage in Britain is about £26,000. Some- one on such a salary pays about £4,000 a year in income tax. So it takes the entire income tax contributions of 25 people just to fund the rent of the Nur family. If the British Left cannot see that spending tax receipts in this way is morally indefensible and economically unsustainable there is no hope for it. Under the loony system, the Nurs are FOUR TIMES better off claiming benefits than working. The average salary of an experienced London bus conductor is £16,000 a year. Top that up with child benefit and they would receive a yearly income of £25,440. But with job-seekers' allowance and £96,000 benefits paying for the house, the family rake in £110,424 a year.

A scrounging family-of-12 who rake in a staggering £95,000 year in benefits have been re-homed in a £1,000-a-week four-bedroom house - after trashing the last one.

Jobless Sam, 36, and Pete Smith, 40, have been given the new house in Bristol to house their brood. The family were kicked out of their previous four-bedroom home in picturesque Bath after a £20,000 wrecking spree left it unfit for human habitation.

It was left in such a foul state that children's mattresses and walls were stained with human and animal excrement, floors were mouldy and rat droppings littered the floor.

But instead of being reprimanded, the couple were housed in a four-bedroom house in nearby Bristol - which they have already set about trashing.

SIX moaning asylum seekers have landed bigger council houses after winning a legal battle with taxpayers’ cash. The Somalians were given free homes shortly after they arrived in Britain. But they soon complained the accommodation was too small after their families arrived from abroad. One refugee was in a two-bed flat, but a year later was joined here by his wife and six children. Another was also joined by his wife and six children before she gave birth to another child. They took their demands to court – using legal aid cash – after Birmingham council said it had no accommodation left. But yesterday it was revealed they been moved into bigger houses after winning the action. One got a five-bedroom mansion, four got four-bedroom homes and another received a three-bedroom house. None of the asylum seekers is believed to be working and all were said to be living off welfare benefits.

A man who invented 16 children to claim £75,000 in benefit payments was jailed yesterday. David Wilshaw, 58, and his partner Nancy Stevenson, 59, took the money after he fabricated a huge family over a four-year period. The idea for the fraud was born after the pair applied for tax credits for two of Stevenson's children and realised that nobody asked to see birth certificates or any other proof of their existence. David Wilshaw and Nancy Stevenson: He bragged of doing a public service Wilshaw then went on to make up the names of 16 children, pocketing more than £400 a week.
Bristol Crown Court heard Wilshaw spent more than that amount every week in betting shops, while Stevenson admitted drinking two bottles of brandy a day. When he was finally arrested, Wilshaw bragged that he was "doing a public service" by exposing the loophole in the benefits system. Yesterday he was sentenced to 20 months in prison after admitting fraud, handling stolen goods and obtaining property by deception.

Stevenson avoided jail after it was said she had played a "lesser role" and that Wilshaw had transferred just £9,000 of the money into her account. She admitted one charge of money laundering and a further charge of tax credit fraud and was given a 12-month supervised community order. The court heard that Wilshaw, who received £113-a-week income support, hatched the plot after claiming child tax credits for his partner's children, neither of whom was living at the couple's home in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

Peter Davey, 35, a father of seven, gave up work in administration nine years ago because he realised he would be better off on state handouts. He and his wife Claire, 29, who is seven months pregnant, believe they deserve their £815-a-week benefit cheque and are open about feeling no guilt that they live at the expense of the taxpayer. Their home, a semi-detached house on the Isle of Anglesey, is complete with 42 inch flat screen television, Sky TV at £50 a month, a computer and three expensive games consoles, as well as four mobile phones. The family also run a Mercedes people carrier and an 11 seater minibus. However, they still feel there is little to be grateful for. Mrs Davey, who has never had a full-time job,: "It's hard. We can't afford holidays and I don't want my kids living on a council estate and struggling like I have. "I don't feel bad about being subsidised by people who are working. I'm just working with the system that's there. "If the government wants to give me money, I'm happy to take it. We get what we're entitled to. I don't put in anything because I don't pay taxes, but if I could work I would. "We couldn't afford to care for our children without benefits, but as long as they have everything they need, I don't think I'm selfish." Mr and Mrs Davey met 13 years ago in a pub and had their first child, Jessica, a year later. They then went onto have Jade, ten, Jamie-Anne, eight, Harriet, six, Adele, four, the couple's only son Tie, three, and Mercedes, two. The couple now receive weekly payments of £439 in income support, £87 in housing benefits, £99 child benefit, £18 council tax benefit. That is on top of a carer's allowance of £53 and a disability living allowance of £119 to support their son who suffers with a skin disorder. "It cost too much to carrying on working as we were actually better off unemployed," said Mr Davey. The family still ensure they do not go without, splashing out on four presents for each child on their birthdays and £2,000 for family gifts at Christmas. And they intend to expand their family by another seven children, bringing the total to 14. "I've always wanted a big family – no one can tell me how many kids I can have whether I'm working or not," said Mrs Davey. Their loud and drunken behaviour makes the lives of their neighbours a misery - and it is all being funded by state handouts of £20,000 a year.

Their scam allowed them to drive around in Porsches and Mercedes, while the taxpayer paid their mortgages on a property portfolio worth £1.5million.But yesterday, justice finally caught up with this fraudulent family of eight. The swindle involved relatives putting in false claims for housing benefit of almost £170,000 which was used to pay off various mortgages.Shamini Kowridas, who was jailed for her part in a £168,000 benefits fraud scam. Sinniah Pathnmanathan was one of eight members of his family found guilty of benefit fraud Family fraud: Shamini Kowridas was sent to jail, while Sinniah Pathmanathan received a suspended sentence because of his ill health One relative would apply for a mortgage, often using false information, then rent the house to a family member. The tenant would hide the fact they were related to their landlord and claim housing benefit, which was funnelled straight into mortgage repayments. The family even drew up bogus tenancy agreements to support the swindle.But after the local council was tipped off and began to investigate, the eight were sentenced to a total of 50 months in prison. At Harrow Crown Court, Judge Graham Arran told them: 'This was done for greed, and never for need. 'Every claim was dishonest from the outset, and I have no doubt the scam involved other fraudulent activity - mortgage fraud and other benefit fraud.' The swindle began in 1993 when Premkumar Pathmanathan, 46, and his brother-in-law Sittamplan Soundrasritharan, 51, secured a deal for a house in Clayton Avenue in Wembley, North London. Pathmanathan's father, Sinniah, 78, was installed as the fake tenant, and began claiming his bogus rent on benefits. Three years later, the family got a mortgage for the house next door, in the name of Pathmanathan and his brother Sivakumar, 46. Pathmanathan's estranged wife, Kalaivany Premkumar, 40, was installed as the pretend tenant, and she too began claiming illegal benefits which covered the mortgage.

Posing proudly before his own yacht in the harbour of a Mediterranean resort, John Watkinson appears the epitome of a successful and affluent businessman.

With an offshore account in Jersey and villas in Spain and Turkey, the company director and his wife enjoyed a millionaire lifestyle. But for more than a decade Watkinson, 69, pleaded poverty and told officials he had just £20 to his name.
John Watkinson and his wife in front of their yacht in Turkey. He claimed £118,000 in benefits while declaring he had just £20 in the bank. Over a 13-year period he claimed almost £120,000 in housing and council tax benefit, income support and pension credits. Yesterday he was behind bars after being jailed for two years when his benefits scam was uncovered by investigators. Liverpool Crown Court heard Watkinson pretended he was out of work and needed benefits to pay for his rented accommodation. But in reality he had secretly set up a firm in Gibraltar to act as a front for all his dealings. And three upmarket homes for which he claimed rent were actually wholly-owned by his company, Brooklyn Holdings Ltd. Over the years Watkinson used this company to buy a series of top-of-the-range boats and luxury villas in Marbella and Turkey. He also splashed out on a £42,000 luxury yacht named Phil-A-Me after his 51-year-old wife Philamena. David McLachlan, prosecuting, told the court that Watkinson fraudulently claimed more than £118,000 in housing and council tax benefit, income support and pension credits between April 1995 and August 2008.

During the fraud he claimed he lived in rented homes in the villages of Heswall, Noctorum, and Oxton in the Wirral, when he actually owned them all. All the properties were bought and then sold by Brooklyn Holdings Ltd which left him free to pocket the housing benefit.

BENEFIT FAMILY GET OVER £37,000 A YEAR.

A jobless couple who appeared on the reality TV show Wife Swap get £37,400 a year in State handouts - while the working couple they exchanged lifestyles earn £10,000 a year less.  Neither Lizzie nor Mark Bardsley, who have eight young children, has worked full time for more than six years.  Instead they receive thousands of pounds in child benefit , income support, and disability and incapacity allowance per month.  Although they own their three-bedroom house, most of their small mortgage is also paid by the state, costing the taxpayer another £1,322 per year.  Mrs Bardsley worked until she was 19 but has not worked for 11 years.  She and her husband spend £140 a week on cigarettes and another £70 on bingo.  Mrs Bardsley said " We are not defrauding the system we are entitled to it, there are loads of asylum seekers getting more than us, so why shouldn't we get what is rightly ours?"  "£37,000 sounds a lot but it is only £3,700 per person per year".

THE BARDSLEYS' BENEFITS:-

Child benefit £4,747.60 per year.  Carers allowance for Marky-Jay £5,691.40 per year he has chronic asthma (yet they still smoke around him).Income Support for Mrs Bardsley and children £13,710.84 per year.Incapacity benefit for Mr. Barsley who has had depression since his father died six years ago  £4,446 per year.Disability living allowance for Marky-Jay £5,051.80Disability allowance for Vienna also a chronic asthmatic £3,754.40

TOTAL = £37,402.04  no wonder so many freeloaders think the UK is a wonderful country.

Sponger 'is a builder'

THE sponger star of TV’s Wife Swap was accused yesterday of being a benefits cheat who moonlights as a handyman. Mark Bardsley, 34, gets £37,402 a year in state handouts to look after his wife Lizzie and their eight children. But last night he was facing an investigation over allegations that he is a freelance handyman.
Care worker Slawka Mitchell said she was stunned when she saw on the Channel 4 show that Bardsley claimed he lived off benefits. Slawka, 49, of Royton, Greater Manchester, said: “Mark was building a chimney for me around the time the programme was being filmed. “I remember someone from Channel 4 phoning him and he talked to me about it.” She added: “I was under the impression he did a lot of building work and he gave me some leaflets with his numbers on. I paid him in cash and he also offered to do some work for my neighbours.” She has reported Bardsley, of Milnrow, Greater Manchester, to the Department of Work and Pensions, who have promised a probe.Lizzy also cheats the system with a £20-a-week job as a telephonist for a local cab company.  Neighbours want the couple to move out of town.

HATE cleric Anjem Choudary nets £25,000 a year in benefits - £8,000 MORE than the take-home pay of soldiers fighting in Afghanistan. The Muslim extremist's handouts are not taxed, making his income equivalent to a £32,500 salary. The revelation came amid mounting fury over bile-spouting Choudary's plan for a parade by Muslim hard-liners through repatriation town Wootton Bassett. He has also likened British soldiers to Nazi stormtroopers. State handout figures leaked to The Sun show Choudary, 42, gets £15,600 a year in housing benefit - to live in a £320,000 house in Leytonstone, East London. The cleric is also given a £1,820 council tax allowance, £5,200 in income support and £3,120 in child benefits. That's a total of £25,740. By contrast, a private fighting the Taliban in the Afghan badlands is paid a basic £16,680 - or £13,430 after tax. He also gets a £2,380 bonus for serving on the frontline and a £1,194 "separation allowance" for being away from home. That makes total take-home earnings of £17,004.

BENEFIT SYSTEM PUTS SPONGERS FIRST.

A 19 year old lay about who is set to become a father for the fifth time is refusing to get a job.  Mike Blake and his wife have never worked in their lives, yet they can pocket state handouts of more than £1000 a month and live rent free in a three bedroom council house.  Blake is fit and healthy but refuses to work.  

What we think the Blakes are getting each month in welfare:-

Child Benefit for four sprogs = £215.Income support ( couples allowance = £87.30 per week, family premium = £15.95 per week plus dependent children allowance =£169.08 per week) gives a total of  = £1,180. Council tax aid  = £49. Jobseekers allowance  = £382. Free rent on council house =  £208. This gives them £2,034 free money per month and they have never paid a penny in taxes.  What wage would they need to be on to get this amount?

When I was signed off work following an operation all I received was £60 per week statutory sick pay (and nothing more) ! Yet I have paid taxes and National Insurance all my life.  I got no help with my service charges or mortgage or utility bills.  Yet a non-worker in my same block of flats who is renting instead of buying gets his full rent paid ( this includes service charges and utility bills within the amount ) plus income support provided by the welfare system.  It is one rule for taxpayers and another for spongers.

BORN SPONGERS?

Meet the McGrawleys a vision of family life in the 21st century Britain.  To them the welfare state is their personal cash point.  The more babies they can produce the less work they need to do and more money rolls in their free council house.  If anybody in their house actually had a job they would need to earn £30,000 a year to equal what they get in handouts.  

What they get in benefits:-income support £378.30 monthly. free council house and rent paid as well. Disability premium £146.68 monthly.Child tax credits £721.93 monthly.Child benefit for Lizzy and Charlene  £71.50 monthly each.Housing benefit for 3 bedroom council house  £228.76 per month.Total = £21,700  per annum cash in hand.

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SUPER-size families living in local ­authority “mansions” have become Britain’s 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. We discovered six, seven and eight-bedroom properties used to accommodate huge households, all at taxpayers’ ex­pense. Our 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. A single mother-of-six is getting more than £80,000 a year from the taxpayer to live in a £2million mansion in an exclusive London suburb. Essma Marjam, 34, is given almost £7,000 a month in housing benefits to pay the rent on the five-bedroom villa just yards from Sir Paul McCartney's house and Lord's cricket ground. She also receives an estimated £15,000 a year in other payouts, such as child benefit, to help look after her children, aged from five months to 14.

Their magnificent townhouse overlooks a courtyard and is in one of the most expensive areas of London. It has four storeys, six bedrooms (some with balconies), three sitting rooms and four bathrooms - as well as a concierge service. The property is worth a cool £1.8 million and would cost you or me nearly £1,600 a week to rent.So who do you think lives here. Is it: (a) a banker; (b) an MP fiddling expenses; or (c) an unemployed former asylum seeker and her family? The last answer is the correct one.

In other words, taxpayers are picking up the £6,400-a-month bill to keep Nasra Warsame, seven of her brood and her elderly mother in the lap of luxury. Mrs Warsame's husband and their eighth child, by the way, have been provided with a two-bedroom council flat nearby. His wife's palatial residence isn't big enough, apparently, to accommodate them all. So how is Mrs Warsame enjoying her publicly-funded mansion? There was no response when we 'buzzed' her state-of-the art video intercom which allows her to screen visitors. No one could blame her for keeping a low profile (if that's possible in such a grand home), considering that her case, among others, prompted the Government's announcement this week that benefit rules are to be changed. For the Warsames are one of a number of families enjoying life on Millionaires' Row, courtesy of our welfare state system. Let's take a quick tour. First stop, David Cameron's trendy neighbourhood of Notting Hill and a £2.6million villa with wooden floors, granite work tops and roof terrace - home to single mother-of-eight Francesca Walker. Francesca, whose mother is Jamaican, spent many years in a succession of council flats, which she claimed were virtually uninhabitable. As a result, the council was forced to consider her as 'technically homeless'. Francesca Walker council house. Unfair: 800 households in Westminster qualify for £500-a-week housing allowance, at a cost of £27.3million. Her eight children are fathered by two different men and she was housed in a privately-owned villa because the council had no suitable accommodation of its own. Next is a detached, double-fronted £1.2million house in Acton, West London, with three shower rooms and 'accessories' including a 50-in plasma TV, laptops, Wii, iPhone and PlayStation - home to the seven-strong Saiedi family from Afghanistan. Then there is the £1million mock-Tudor property, comprising two sitting rooms, conservatory and double garage, in Edgware (home to single mother-of-five Omowunmi Odia), and another £1million property in Barnet (home to the Connors, a family of Irish travellers). In fact, 16 families are living in million-pound-plus London properties funded by the controversial Local Housing Allowance, which allows people to rent from private landlords and hand the bill to the state. These examples alone cost us £2.4million a year - enough to put at least 100 extra police officers on the streets of the capital. But this isn't the real story, or not all of the story, anyway. It gets even worse. Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper insists 'very high rents' represent only a 'small proportion' of overall housing allowance claims. Well, that depends on how you define 'very high'. Does £1,000-a-week fall into this category? Around 100 households, mostly in London, now receive this amount via their local authority. How many families can afford monthly mortgage repayments of £4,000? The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said it could not provide us with figures for those claiming £500 a week without receiving a Freedom of Information request in writing, which means Christmas would have come and gone by the time we got an answer. But Tory-run Westminster Council, which has been left to pick up the flak over Mrs Warsame, was happy to oblige. Funnily enough, no Freedom of Information request was required. In fact, a staggering 800 households in the borough qualify for £500-a-week payments. Or, to put it another way, they are living in properties that, back in the real world, they would only be able to afford if they were earning between £70,000 and £80,000 a year. The average salary in this country, remember, is a little more than £20,000 a year. The annual bill for the 'Westminster 800'? A shameful £27.3 million. The statistics for other London boroughs are equally outrageous. Is there anyone - apart from the staff of The Guardian - who doesn't think this is a scandal; a two-fingered salute, metaphorically speaking, to every family in Britain which isn't milking the benefits system?

A FAMILY of former asylum seekers is living in a £1.8m central London home at a cost to the taxpayer of £1,600 a week, despite a pledge by ministers to crack down on housing benefit payments. Somali-born Nasra Warsame, seven of her children and her mother moved into the six-bedroom property last month after Westminster council agreed to pay the rent. Her husband and an eighth child are living in a separate “overspill” property also paid for by housing benefit. Warsame’s five-storey home boasts three sitting rooms and four bathrooms. It is within walking distance of the West End. This weekend critics said the £1,600 payment — £83,000 a year — was “excessive” and accused the government of failing to get to grips with Britain’s annual £17 billion housing benefit bill. Last year James Purnell, then work and pensions secretary, promised to make housing benefit “fair to taxpayers” as well as to people on low incomes. Today’s revelations, however, appear to contradict that claim. The Warsame family home is part of a smart 1960s development just yards from Edgware Road Underground station. It is understood that the house was previously rented out at £800 per week — considered by estate agents in the area as the going rate for similar properties. It is unclear why the taxpayer is having to pay twice that rate.

A Nigerian mother-of-five is living in a five bedroom, detached house with an annual rent of £25,000 paid for by taxpayers. The house, worth as much as £1 million at the height of the property boom, is situated in a smart cul-de-sac close to shops in Edgware village, north London. The tenant, Omowunmi Odia, said today she was pleased to be living there - the family's previous home was a cramped flat. Mother-of-five Omowunmi Odia is pleased with her new detached house which was worth as much as £1m at the height of the property boom. 'I was living in a two-bedroom apartment with my five children and only moved in here two weeks ago,' said Mrs Odia, who is in her thirties. 'They didn't have any council houses big enough for me so I found this one. I like it; the children like it,' she added. Mrs Odia, who drives a six-year-old family car, was forced out of her previous home after a court order was obtained against her. Threatened with homelessness, she was rehoused by Barnet council in her new house, bought by its owners in 2005 for £650,000. This five-bedroom London home has an annual rent of £25,000 paid for by taxpayers. Government rules entitle Mrs Odia, who has been in the UK for 10 years, to live in a five-bedroom house. She lives off benefits and has not been in contact with her husband, who remains in Nigeria, for at least three years. Mrs Odia's new home also has two large sitting rooms, a conservatory which backs on to a garden, and a double garage. It is, however, unfurnished and most of the rooms are empty bar a leather sofa and armchairs in one of the sitting rooms. Mrs Odia said the council had tried to rehouse her in Enfield, north London, but she had held out for Edgware, close to her children's schools. One of the bedrooms, she said, was "no bigger than a shoebox".

Jobless couple with 12 children are given a £500,000 home. It's the type of highly-desirable family home that is well beyond the reach of many middle-class professionals. A detached period house, with eight bedrooms, a garden, its own driveway and all set in a leafy residential area of well-to-do Newbury, Berkshire. But Carl and Samantha Gillespie - together with their 12 children - have been able to move in without paying the slightest heed to Britain's sky-rocketing house prices.

In fact the couple have been given the keys without lifting a finger in work. The Gillespie family: Karl , Samantha and their 12 children It has been revealed that the couple - neither of whom work and who receive an astonishing £44,000 in benefits a year - have been housed in the £500,000 property by their local council. West Berkshire County Council gave them the keys after their previous council home burnt down in a blaze sparked by one of the couple's children. The decision was greeted with anger and incredulity by the couple's new neighbours, many of whom have spent years working hard to struggle up the property ladder. The Gillespies have been dubbed 'Britain's biggest scroungers' and are the most notorious example of people taking advantage of our generous benefits system. The £500,000 eight-bedroom house that the family have been given in Newbury.  They receive the equivalent of £44,000 a year in benefits, a figure made up of £1,500 a month housing benefit; £1,200 a month child tax credit; £560 a month child benefits; £280 job seeker's allowance and £1,600 a year in council tax. Former book-keeper Samantha, 35, had five children from a previous relationship when she married Carl, who used to work as a door-to-door salesman. They are Craig, 16, Adam, 14, Jack, 13, Rebekah, 11, and Harry, nine. The couple then had seven of their own: twins Parris-Jordan and Kesla Blu, eight; twins Mason and Peaches, six; Logan, four, and the three-year-old twins Skye and Kalifornya. When asked why they don't work, the couple say that looking after their children is a full time job. And they claim they would earn less working than they do claiming the dole. Mr Gillespie has revealed that he quit a job at stacking shelves at Asda before he had even started, when he realised the £300 a week he would earn would result in a £400 benefits cut. He said: "Some people may think we're a bunch of spongers, but it's not true." His wife added: "I was born to have children, it's what I am here for." However, their MP, Labour's Martin Salter, has said "There is no excuse for any able-bodied person to be long-term unemployed in Reading, where jobs are plentiful."People who have large families should accept financial responsibility for that decision." Prior to their latest home, the Gillespies were housed in a five-bedroom property in Purley-on-Thames, Berkshire. However, in June last year the property burnt down when one of the family's youngest twins played with a cigarette lighter. Following that they lived in temporary council accommodation and the children were ferried to and from school in a minibus, paid for by the council. Their latest home, formerly a hotel, is estimated to have cost £350,000 to buy and a further £150,000 to renovate with double-glazing, carpets, central heating and furniture. Mr and Mrs Gillespie claim that they want to go out to work but would lose more than they gain. The family said when they were offered an eight-bedroom £500,000 house from the council they had no choice but to take it as previous accommodation had been totally unsuitable. Despite this, neighbours said the family were the 'wrong sort' and shouldn't be there. Mr Gillespie, 34, said: "We're not scroungers and if it was economical for me to work then I would do."We can just about survive on the money we've got but I can't give my kids nice things that other parents could like days out, and if I were working I could afford them."The last job I had was in 2000 or 2001 when I was working at ASDA earning £300 to £350 a month."I did this for ten weeks and at that time my housing benefit was cut from £1600 to £800 a month so it just didn't make sense for me to carry on working." Mrs Gillespie, 36, added: "All our kids are in school and they want to make something of themselves and not just scrounge and live off the dole."My oldest son Craig joined the army last week and we're doing our best to make sure the others have careers as well.""If we were scroungers we'd be telling them to either have babies or get straight on the dole, but we're not."
"Before we were offered this house we lived in a three-bedroom house which was temporary accommodation.""There were seven boys in one bedroom and five girls in another. In the boys bedroom we had three sets of bunk beds lined up next to each other and you could hardly move". The house itself is a three storey modern brick detached farmhouse style home in a quiet residential street in Newbury. It has its own gate and is set back from the road by a gravel driveway on which are a Fiat Bravo, a Ford Escort, two bicycles, a broken pushchair and a washing machine.

Neighbour Betty Giles, 80, said: "It's not right for them to be in there. I live with my son and he's mortgaged up to his eyeballs so it's pretty stiff for him to see them move into such a nice house." Another female neighbour in her sixties, who declined to be named for fear of retribution, said: "They're the wrong sort of people for round here.""Most people on the street are elderly and I think there's only one other family in the vicinity, but nowhere near as big as theirs."The general mood is that they're not wanted." The family moved in on May 14th. Mrs Gillespie showed me her annual income support form which was £19,775.74 but this does not include housing benefit.
Paul and Samantha have eight children together and she has four from a previous relationship, making 12 in total. The children they have had together are Harry 10, Parris Jordan 8, Kesla 8, Mason 7, Peaches 7, Logan 5, Skye 3 and Californya 3.

Samantha's children from her previous relationship are Craig 17, Adam 16, Jack 14 and Rebekah 13. West Berkshire Council was unavailable for comment