Scroungers on £42k a year benefits because they’re better off not working

Today’s instalment of why Britain is so totally screwed after 13 years of Labour administration is brought to us by thisismoney.co.uk. To summarise, Peter Davey and his wife Claire have seven children, with yet another one on the way, and have an ‘income’ of £815 per week (£42,500 pa) entirely in benefits. To put this in perspective, you’d need to earn about £61,500 pre-tax to get the same.

There are so many similar stories that I have given up reporting them, but the sheer affrontery of these two beggars belief even in this rotten system.

Mr. Davey used to work, but gave up because his family were better off on benefits.

Of course, they’re still not happy.

‘It’s really hard,’ said Mrs Davey, 29, who is seven months pregnant. ‘We can’t afford holidays and I don’t want my kids living on a council estate and struggling like I have.

‘The price of living is going up but benefits are going down. My carer’s allowance is only going up by 80p this year and petrol is so expensive now, I’m worried how we’ll cope.

‘We’re still waiting for somewhere bigger.’

My heart bleeds.

Their list of mod-cons reads like a Who’s Who of the Argos catalogue. They have a 42in flat-screen television with Sky TV at £50 a month, a Wii games console, three Nintendo DS machines and a computer – not to mention four mobile phones. They also run an 11-seater minibus and a seven-seat automatic Mercedes. About what you’d expect in a house with an income of 60-odd grand, but not in a house where one parent has never worked, and the other hasn’t had a job in nine years.

And yet, predictably, they are entirely unrepentant.

‘It doesn’t bother me that taxpayers are paying for me to have a large family,’ added Mrs Davey.

‘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.

‘Most of the parents at our kids’ school are on benefits.’

She added: ‘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.’

Entitled to? For doing what exactly? It makes my blood boil. Perhaps it might have occurred to her that if she can’t afford to feed and clothe her own children, she might stop having them?

Incidentally, the reason she can’t work is that one of her brood has a skin disorder, for which she naturally gets carer’s allowance and disability allowance.

Despite proving their Gordon-Brown-esque financial management skills and filing for bankruptcy 18 months ago after racking up £20,000 of debt on mail order catalogues, they still insist on splashing out on four presents per child at birthdays and last Christmas spent £2,000 on gifts alone.

‘Santa is always generous in our house,’ said Mrs Davey.

Oh how wonderful for you. Is he so generous, I ask, in houses where both parents work on minimum wage?

She insists her husband would do any job ‘as long as we could still afford the lifestyle we have now’.

I’m sure he’s eminently suited for a £60k job after working as an administrator and then being unemployed for almost a decade.

Mrs Davey, who spends £160 a week at Tesco, says she does not intend to stop at eight children. Her target is 14. And she adds: ‘I’ve always wanted a big family – no one can tell me how many kids I can have whether I’m working or not.’

I’m not sure I need to add anything else…