Anyone else read The Sunday Times article about mum of 4 paid £90,000 per year housing benefit....

[findtheriver]

Yes, that's right, 90k of tax payers money in rent on a 5 bed house in Kensington. I was reading Sunday Times online - maybe someone else is clever enough to do the link?

Have to say it seems a fecking joke to me... can some explain how it's good use of taxpayers money to fund this?? A house which would be waaaaaaaaay beyond the reach of those very same taxpayers who have no choice but to fund it?

And apparently the tenant is whinging about possible harrassment from the media ... well tough shit, thank god it's out in the open and we can see what a scam the system is!

simple question, why is she in kensington anyway?

shopaholic - she'll be in Kensington because she has some connection - born there, lived there, has kids at school there.

Hmmm ... I was born not far from there but sadly no one has offered to house me free of charge there. I did what most of us do and moved to where I could afford to live

Remember that story tells us nothing about the family. So there is no reason at all why they wouldn't be a tragic, deserving case such as has been described by other posters (sudden bereavement etc). That's why I said the newspaper article was mean-spirited shit-stirring because you're pretty much encouraged to think 'lazy workshy scrounging scum'.

lazy workshy scrounging scum!

Taxpayers have a right to know how money is spent. I'm glad this has been exposed rather than covered up.

Even if the family are a 'tragic, deserving case', I cannot believe that this is really the most cost effective strategy.

£90,000 per year for god's sake! Is anyone seriously suggesting that there isn't a cheaper option? This money is earned by other people. It's not some bottomless purse.

An awful lot of taxpayers money is spent on propping up parasites like the royal family and lining the pockets of the Government's cronies. That's why there's always so much poor-bashing in the papers: to deflect your attention.

Maybe one or more of the children is disabled/ill and needs space for lots of equipment in their room?

K&C should have built/bought more social housing, basically. Central government makes this very hard for councils, admittedly. So blame K&C and Gordon, not this family.

Not all of Kensington is a lovely area full of ambassador's residences, btw. There are some rough parts.

(I mean the borough rather than Kensington itself.)

solidgold - I really don't understand the 'argument' that because tax payers money is misused in other ways, then it justifies it in this way.

I think it's deplorable that tax payers have to prop up the royal family. But it's also equally deplorable that 90,000 pounds per year is being spent on housing one family. It disgusts me.