ianstone
09-05-2010, 01:30 PM
£95,000-a-year benefits family of 12 re-homed in a £1,000-a-week house... 'after they trashed the last one'
By Daily Mail Reporter (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Daily+Mail+Reporter)
Last updated at 5:07 PM on 5th September 2010
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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 five 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 five-bedroom house in nearby Bristol - which they have already set about trashing.
Enlarge http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/05/article-0-0B0C1156000005DC-792_468x335.jpg (http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/05/article-0-0B0C1156000005DC-792_468x335_popup.jpg)Give us more: Father Pete Smith with his wife Sam and their ten children
The case highlights Britain's shambolic benefits system, which allows the Smiths to trouser a staggering £44,824 a year in benefits alone.
On top of that, their £960 a week rent is also paid, which is so high because their breakfast is delivered every day.
The annual rent tops £49,920 - meaning their total annual cost to the taxpayer is an incredible £94,744.
The list of handouts include: £140 a week child benefits, £120 a week disability living allowance, £250 a month carers allowance for Peter, £527 a week in tax credits, £30 every fortnight for income support.
This does not include the £960 a week rent for their new five-bedroom house, which includes breakfast delivered daily to their door.
But mum-of-ten Sam - who hasn't worked in over a decade - has complained her current home is not big enough and her family is not given enough financial help.
She also whinged the family has to prepare their own breakfast, which is delivered to their doorstep for free.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/05/article-0-0B0C2463000005DC-929_468x682.jpg Abdullah Khateed, landlord of the previous home in Weston, Bath where Sam Smith and her partner Peter lived with their ten children
Obese Sam said: 'It's very cramped in the new house. We have four bedrooms with bunkbeds for the kids and that's it.
'The council is trying to find somewhere for us but a four bedroom isn't big enough and they say they don't have much more.
'We need a five bedroom minimum. We've tried housing associations and they turn their noses up at us because we have so many kids, which isn't fair.
'We are sitting here waiting while they find us somewhere else for us.
'The benefits aren't much. By the time we have to pay for food and clothes and electricity we don't have much left.
'It's tough because we don't even have a TV here. We have no ariel and the kids only have one Nintendo Wii between them.' The couple have systematically trashed up to nine houses since Pete quit the army in 2001 to care for Sam after she was registered disabled with a bad back.
Since then, neither have had jobs and have given birth to seven of their ten children, pocketing £tens of thousands of taxpayers cash.
They were moved into the new home in Kingswood, Bristol three weeks ago by Bristol City Council after their last one in Bath was no longer considered fit for human habitation.
Social services visited their Bath home in December 2009 and January and March this year after receiving reports they were living in filth and squalor.
When officers investigated, they were stunned to be confronted by filthy mattresses and human and animal excrement covering the floor and walls.
But amazingly, the landlord of the property, who admitted he had not visited the house in years, was ordered to clean up the house.
He immediately evicted the 'parasites' and has since had to fork out £25,000 on renovating the house to make it fit for human habitation.
Former landlord Abdullah Khateeb, 60, from Bath, said: 'When they moved in they had five children. By the time they left four years later it had doubled to ten - and they wanted more.
'The place was disgusting. There was there own faeces and that of their cats all over their beds, which were just grotty mattresses lying on the floor.
'It's a miracle the youngsters aren't ill, the house was so dirty. It's not fair on the children, they don't deserve to live like this.
'I've never seen anything like it. It made me want to be sick. The council later told me the family were known to them and had trashed eight or nine houses before mine.
'It seems they are like parasites moving from one place to the next, before destroying it and moving on.
'The benefits system is to blame. This family are on huge benefits and move from one place to the next trashing the houses while they have everything paid for them.' Their current Bristol home is less than a mile from family-of-12 the Bateman's - who hit the headlines last month after complaining they needed a bigger house.
Incredibly, Pete believes his situation mirrors that of the Bateman's and even has the cheek to argue that family's like his are victims.
He said: 'Just because we have a big family we are not offered housing big enough for our children.
'It's not fair. The amount we are given isn't really that much and I'm constantly having to rob Peter to pay Paul.'
View all
Come on Dave order the Home Secretary to do something about them. Father and mother to be found a job at the council bin department or road sweeping. Kids in a home or minders during the working day.
- Casey, West Sussex, 05/9/2010 14:51
Good idea, except that they couldn't afford childminding fees on a binmans salary. The taxpayer would probably pick up the bill and that would be far higher than the money they currently get.
Mind you it would be better for the kids in the long run if they could see their parents actually go out and do some work.
- my Dyson's broke again, Bournemouth, UK, 05/9/2010 17:04
Click to rate (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1309201/95-000-year-benefits-family-12-homed-1-000-week-house--trashed-one.html#) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1309201/95-000-year-benefits-family-12-homed-1-000-week-house--trashed-one.html#) Rating 234
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It is an absolute disgrace that people can get away with living like this at exhorbitant cost to the British taxpayer. Why on earth are benefits not capped at minimum wage levels? This man would never earn a wage like this working for a living so he is hardly likely to go out and get a job! He and his ungrateful brood will be benefit dependent for the rest of their lives and surely the kids are at risk living in such filthy conditions? It is worse than shameful and something should be done about it!
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1309201/95-000-year-benefits-family-12-homed-1-000-week-house--trashed-one.html#ixzz0yg34Yn7W
By Daily Mail Reporter (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Daily+Mail+Reporter)
Last updated at 5:07 PM on 5th September 2010
Comments (225) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1309201/95-000-year-benefits-family-12-homed-1-000-week-house--trashed-one.html#comments)
Add to My Stories (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1309201/95-000-year-benefits-family-12-homed-1-000-week-house--trashed-one.html)
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 five 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 five-bedroom house in nearby Bristol - which they have already set about trashing.
Enlarge http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/05/article-0-0B0C1156000005DC-792_468x335.jpg (http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/05/article-0-0B0C1156000005DC-792_468x335_popup.jpg)Give us more: Father Pete Smith with his wife Sam and their ten children
The case highlights Britain's shambolic benefits system, which allows the Smiths to trouser a staggering £44,824 a year in benefits alone.
On top of that, their £960 a week rent is also paid, which is so high because their breakfast is delivered every day.
The annual rent tops £49,920 - meaning their total annual cost to the taxpayer is an incredible £94,744.
The list of handouts include: £140 a week child benefits, £120 a week disability living allowance, £250 a month carers allowance for Peter, £527 a week in tax credits, £30 every fortnight for income support.
This does not include the £960 a week rent for their new five-bedroom house, which includes breakfast delivered daily to their door.
But mum-of-ten Sam - who hasn't worked in over a decade - has complained her current home is not big enough and her family is not given enough financial help.
She also whinged the family has to prepare their own breakfast, which is delivered to their doorstep for free.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/05/article-0-0B0C2463000005DC-929_468x682.jpg Abdullah Khateed, landlord of the previous home in Weston, Bath where Sam Smith and her partner Peter lived with their ten children
Obese Sam said: 'It's very cramped in the new house. We have four bedrooms with bunkbeds for the kids and that's it.
'The council is trying to find somewhere for us but a four bedroom isn't big enough and they say they don't have much more.
'We need a five bedroom minimum. We've tried housing associations and they turn their noses up at us because we have so many kids, which isn't fair.
'We are sitting here waiting while they find us somewhere else for us.
'The benefits aren't much. By the time we have to pay for food and clothes and electricity we don't have much left.
'It's tough because we don't even have a TV here. We have no ariel and the kids only have one Nintendo Wii between them.' The couple have systematically trashed up to nine houses since Pete quit the army in 2001 to care for Sam after she was registered disabled with a bad back.
Since then, neither have had jobs and have given birth to seven of their ten children, pocketing £tens of thousands of taxpayers cash.
They were moved into the new home in Kingswood, Bristol three weeks ago by Bristol City Council after their last one in Bath was no longer considered fit for human habitation.
Social services visited their Bath home in December 2009 and January and March this year after receiving reports they were living in filth and squalor.
When officers investigated, they were stunned to be confronted by filthy mattresses and human and animal excrement covering the floor and walls.
But amazingly, the landlord of the property, who admitted he had not visited the house in years, was ordered to clean up the house.
He immediately evicted the 'parasites' and has since had to fork out £25,000 on renovating the house to make it fit for human habitation.
Former landlord Abdullah Khateeb, 60, from Bath, said: 'When they moved in they had five children. By the time they left four years later it had doubled to ten - and they wanted more.
'The place was disgusting. There was there own faeces and that of their cats all over their beds, which were just grotty mattresses lying on the floor.
'It's a miracle the youngsters aren't ill, the house was so dirty. It's not fair on the children, they don't deserve to live like this.
'I've never seen anything like it. It made me want to be sick. The council later told me the family were known to them and had trashed eight or nine houses before mine.
'It seems they are like parasites moving from one place to the next, before destroying it and moving on.
'The benefits system is to blame. This family are on huge benefits and move from one place to the next trashing the houses while they have everything paid for them.' Their current Bristol home is less than a mile from family-of-12 the Bateman's - who hit the headlines last month after complaining they needed a bigger house.
Incredibly, Pete believes his situation mirrors that of the Bateman's and even has the cheek to argue that family's like his are victims.
He said: 'Just because we have a big family we are not offered housing big enough for our children.
'It's not fair. The amount we are given isn't really that much and I'm constantly having to rob Peter to pay Paul.'
View all
Come on Dave order the Home Secretary to do something about them. Father and mother to be found a job at the council bin department or road sweeping. Kids in a home or minders during the working day.
- Casey, West Sussex, 05/9/2010 14:51
Good idea, except that they couldn't afford childminding fees on a binmans salary. The taxpayer would probably pick up the bill and that would be far higher than the money they currently get.
Mind you it would be better for the kids in the long run if they could see their parents actually go out and do some work.
- my Dyson's broke again, Bournemouth, UK, 05/9/2010 17:04
Click to rate (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1309201/95-000-year-benefits-family-12-homed-1-000-week-house--trashed-one.html#) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1309201/95-000-year-benefits-family-12-homed-1-000-week-house--trashed-one.html#) Rating 234
Report abuse (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/reportAbuseInComment.html?articleId=1309201&commentId=25479278)
It is an absolute disgrace that people can get away with living like this at exhorbitant cost to the British taxpayer. Why on earth are benefits not capped at minimum wage levels? This man would never earn a wage like this working for a living so he is hardly likely to go out and get a job! He and his ungrateful brood will be benefit dependent for the rest of their lives and surely the kids are at risk living in such filthy conditions? It is worse than shameful and something should be done about it!
-
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1309201/95-000-year-benefits-family-12-homed-1-000-week-house--trashed-one.html#ixzz0yg34Yn7W