To feel a little sorry for the 7 children benefits Mum.

[MilgramsLittleHelper]

www.itv.com/daybreak/hottopics/benefits-mum/

Is just seems like another bit of benefit bashing to me.

I know she shouldn't have had children she couldn't afford, but what hope of improving her lot???

[ItsallFeegle]

BaconKetchup - I would guess they don't have 7 children but I may be wrong....

....So, it really is about benefit bashing. I knew it

[ophelia275]

What is ironic is that someone actually in work and earning £45k (£32k after tax and NI) would have lost most of their entitlements to tax credits etc. Yet someone earning this amount on benefits does not and it is not taxed either.

[mixedmamameansbusiness]

I was about to agree but then saw the 2k per month!

I stopped reading at that point and should probably finish but I assume her 6 bed roomed house is via the council/HB so £2000 seems sufficient.

I say this as someone who does live in council accommodation, with full rent etc and DH salary is average/mediocre retail management and we really struggle with 3 DSs but we manage it and I am looking at a part time job.

I disagree with a lot if the cuts and where they are being made, but I don't like this story.

[lainiekazan]

Agree, ophelia. If you earn £45k you will be paying for school dinners, school trips etc - the same net amount on benefits and these things will be free, plus school uniform allowance, school swimming lessons etc etc

[ladythatlunches]

Myself and dh have 5 children, my dh works very very hard we manage we do not have benefits.

We had twins so went from 3-5 it was our choice to have then so we raise them.

We could bot afford anymore dh has been snipped! I would hate to rely on benefits. I know some people don't really have a choice whether it being they have spilt from there partners but I can't understand the having 7 children. I feel fully stretched out between my children as we try to make sure they all get the same, it is very hard.

But I must say we could not live off 2k a month no way, but if we had to we would. Certainly wouldn't be in a postion argue aboutt.

[Bonquers]

Why on earth shouldn't we benefit bash lazy scroungers like this?
I'm over the moon they are being clamped down on and sick to death of my taxes supporting the useless, the lazy and the feckless and all their offspring who are most likely apt to do the same..

[angelos02]

Its a fucked up system where it is possible to have a better lifestyle not working than working. Between DH & I we earn around £70k between us but couldn't dream of affording a 6 bedroom house or having 7 children.

[Jan49]

She talks as if she thinks she's being employed to bring up those children and should be paid for it. The sense of entitlement makes me really angry.

The fact that some fathers can get away with neither doing the practical care nor making financial contributions makes me angry too. This woman is actually contributing a lot more than the fathers are because at least she's doing the practical care. But what people see is the woman and the children so they blame the person they see, not the father that's cleared off. I blame both parents. My sympathy is with the kids and with the services that end up having to provide for children when the parents could have made the situation so much better by not producing so many.

ItsallFeegle, I'd assume she intended to have most of them. If she had 7 accidents then she had plenty of opportunity to learn to prevent that in the future, by abstaining from sex, using contraception or having an abortion. If she and her partner/s considered none of those options acceptable and preferred to have endless children, then they ought to be providing for them. Are you suggesting that since we don't know the full details of her situation, we shouldn't judge? In which case, what's the point of discussing anything ever?

[Davsmum]

ghayes -I can hardly blame people for getting annoyed about paying tax when they see that their money is going towards people like this,
---------------

People like what exactly? You also know this woman?

Our taxes go towards lots of things. Many benefits to which people are entitled go unclaimed but are we seeking them out to give them their money? Are you bothered about these people?

Its sad that for some - they can see nothing more than a life on benefits for whatever reason. I wouldn't swap places with them - There is no real future - no chance of improvement in their circumstances. They cannot get credit unless they are willing to pay massive interest rates.

Do I feel sorry for these people? Yes. Because they are missing out on a life of real choice. They are limited.
If you think its so good for them and you feel resentful - go try it.

[Birdsgottafly]

I think to find out how the bedroom tax and benefit cuts affect, who some would describe as the "deserving poor", you need to stick to local Newspapers.

I am in Liverpool and already there are sucide attempts, because people will not be able to live. There are already more and more boarded up houses, because of the bedroom tax.

Every housing provider says that demand out numbers supply and will continue to do so.

We do not have a housing problem on Merseyside, the areas where houses are available, aren't the best, i live in one of them, but there are 3 bed houses with gardens for under £80 a week. We did not need the bedroom tax, i supposed Birmingham didn't, either. There is life outside London, even if it isn't thought worthwhile, by some.

Liverpool will loss the most in terms of benefits and cuts to budgets, there is a shortage of jobs and shops are closing weekly (with the associated ware housing and transportetc jobs).

There are meetings and it is being organised to have a mass stand off, as we did over the Poll tax. I hope it goes ahead, i join in the protests, it is a good mix. The Liverpool Echo, report well on these subjects.

The family in this story are rare and if they do go into hostel accomodation, they will need support workers (two of the children are disabled), possibly SW intervention, at least a CAF from school, so it will cost us more to disrupt this family.

We are going back to the 70's and 80's, where people cannot afford to eat and have any standard of living, couple that with some of our issues (such as immigration) and the Tories best start planning to spend double on crime prevention (as they did in the 80's, no money was saved by cuts to welfare).

[OTTMummA]

I am one of five children, I had to share a bedroom with 3 of my siblings for 5 yrs in social housing when I was a child, I was the eldest and remember having to go without quite often.
It is not a bed of roses being on benefits or being the child of someone living on Full benefits.

I have lived in refuges because my mum had to escape my abusive father, I have moved over 20 times in my life and i am not yet 30.
I have lived in foster care and bedsits, basically its been a bit of a struggle.
I am not good with money, have anxiety and depression and have decided that I can not cope with any more children ( I have 2 ) we can not afford any more children either.

This lady probably has a similar background to mine, or probably worse.
What she needs is help, not necessarily monetary help, but education on how to better herself.
She needs compassion, nobody chooses to live like this, no one actually thinks this is a great life unless you have been told this is all you are good for, all you will achieve.
She quite clearly is lacking in life skills, the skills responsible parents try to instil into their children.
She is stuck like this, abandoned by the father, probably let down by her parents and has no aspirations because she hasn't been set an example.

These threads really irk me,, can no one actually see how desperate and sad people like this are?

[Bonquers]

She can be desperate and sad on less money than a hardworking couple who have had to stop at two children, thankyouverymuch.

[Birdsgottafly]

"I'm over the moon they are being clamped down on"

They won't be, in many cases there children will end up being consider "In Need" and they will be funded from a diffrent source.

We will then pick up the bill in the prison and MH services that we don't spend on welfare, costing much more in the long run.

"Its a fucked up system where it is possible to have a better lifestyle not working than working. "

We needed a welfare system similar to the countries that we were joining when we became a part of the EU. We also needed a greater investment in industry etc, not the destrution that the Thatcher set about. We had a good base in our social structure, it became a mess.

Then by the 90's we needed wages topping up,in the form of tax credits, because we allowed work not to pay. The reason why benefits were given was because in a lot of areas (mainly "Up North and Wales") there was no longer employment.

[ophelia275]

We are not going back to the 70s. The benefit cap has been capped at £26k, the equivalent to a £35k per year wage and that does not include free prescriptions, free school lunches and all the other satellite benefits that are not counted. If anyone thinks a cap of £26k is Dickensian then you are out of your mind! The tax and national insurance contributions of how many workers have to pay for only this one example of benefits excess and what exactly is society likely to get out of it (statistically, her children are also likely to become net takers).

[Floggingmolly]

nobody chooses to live like this. Sorry, that's a ridiculous thing to say; many, many people quite obviously do.

[AKissIsNotAContract]

We will then pick up the bill in the prison and MH services that we don't spend on welfare, costing much more in the long run.

Exactly

[cory]

"ItsallFeegle, I'd assume she intended to have most of them. If she had 7 accidents then she had plenty of opportunity to learn to prevent that in the future, by abstaining from sex, using contraception or having an abortion."

What ItsallFeegle said, and I thought very interestingly, is that in her experience from working with such people, a woman in this situation will often have conceived her children in an abusive relationship where she did not have the choice of abstaining from sex or using contraception. I hadn't thought of that before, but it makes sense.

[Birdsgottafly]

"She can be desperate and sad on less money than a hardworking couple who have had to stop at two children, thankyouverymuch."

Because that is what we want, desperate/sad Mums,bringing up 7 children. The MH services, anti depressants etc, will cost what her rent does. Then we will start to deal with her children's problems after being in that situation.

The point is that people will not be able to afford to live, literally.

One suggestion is that people, including LP's take in lodgers, no CRB or background check to be provided.

[spotscotch]

Blimey, have I stumbled onto an alternative mumsnet? And where is usualsuspect has she missed her benefits klaxon?

[Ashoething]

I feel sorry for her kids as they appear to have no role models in their lives. I feel not one ounce of sympathy for her. I have 3 kids and live in a 2 bedroom house as that's all we can afford.

Before anyone jumps in to point out I own my house while she merely rents her 6 bedroom mansion-I would have happily have had a council flat/house but dh and I were laughed out of their offices when we enquired.

Interesting the U-turn labour have done on the benefits thing-now they see that actually the benefits cuts are popular and long overdue...

[ItsallFeegle]

Jan - you are assuming.

This woman may be all the things that people are bashing her over but I prefer to not bash anyone and instead, realise that there might be some really complicated reasons for their situations.

Again, she may have been forced to have so many pregnancies, it's not uncommon.

Can I also point out to everyone who has mentioned all the fathers, that 6 of the 7 are her exH's children.

[Floggingmolly]

Or maybe the point is that had she not had the expectation that she could have 7 children with someone else picking up the tab, she may well have made different choices? like most of us

[Ashoething]

Yes its interesting spot-how the tide has turned on mn re benefit cuts. There was a time on here when if you dared to suggest that any benefit claimant was anything less than a perfect saint you were flamed to hell and back.

[Ashoething]

If she hadn't been handed money for each child and a 6 bedroom house then she wouldn't have had so many children. I would bet my last pound on it.

[FasterStronger]

the women and the two dads are completely irresponsible. hopefully the benefit reforms will stop this happening in the future.