Former asylum seekers live in Rs 147-crore five-bedroom spread in London -- costing taxpayers a whopping Rs 5.6 lakh a month
Former asylum seekers live in Rs 147-crore five-bedroom spread in London -- costing taxpayers a whopping Rs 5.6 lakh a month
An extraordinary case that has made front-page headlines in the British media demonstrates the absurd lengths to which some undeserving people will go in order to take unfair advantage of laxity in the administration of well-intentioned benefits for citizens of a welfare state.
It also highlights the supercilious generosity of some local government functionaries in spending the hard-earned money of already burdened, unsuspecting tax-payers.
Does it remind you of the situation in India? It does to me!
A family of former asylum-seekers from Somalia are living in a ufffd2.1 million (Rs 147 crore) luxury five-bedroom townhouse in one of Britain's most exclusive addresses in London's posh Kensington area.
Lavish housing
The rent for the swish lodgings, in a neighbourhood boasting of the city's creme de la creme, is estimated at
ufffd8,000 (Rs 5.6 lakh) a month and has been approved by the city council entirely at the tax payers' cost as part of state benefits.
Local rules allow anyone who is eligible for housing benefit to claim for a private property in any part of the country they wish.
Powerless council
The council said it had a responsibility to meet the needs of claimants who were eligible for benefits and was powerless to stop people moving into private accommodation in the area, which became famous because the late Princess Diana often attended theatrical performances there.
|
| Lucky me: Somalia-born Abdiu00a0 Nur with his wife and children live in a three-storeyed house in London's posh Kensington area |
Somalia-born Abdi Nur(42) an unemployed bus conductor, his 40-year-old wife Sayruq and their seven children moved into their three-storey property last month because they didn't like the 'poorer' part of the city they were living in.
They complained there were no buses, shops or schools nearby.
Nur said, "The new house is good enough and it is near the school and the shops. We need a house this big because we have so many children. The old house was good but the area was not so good. It was a very poor area."
Too far to travel"The old house was four or five bus stops away from the primary school attended by two of my children. Soon, all three of our younger children are going to be in primary school and we can't take them all on the bus. Now they are going to a school that is just down the road."
Nur lost his ufffd6.50 (Rs 450)-an-hour job as a bus conductor 18 months ago.
He said the local council 'didn't care' abut his decision to move into the borough, which they said 'was not a problem.'
Apart from the five bedrooms, the Nur family's new property has two bathrooms, a fully-fitted kitchen and a garden.
u00a0Employed by the Red Cross in Somalia, Nur and his family fled their homeland because of the civil war there and were granted asylum in 1999.
The couple's four eldest children were born in Somalia and the youngest three in Britain.
Lucky ones!Nur acknowledged the family was lucky to have the new home but insisted his family 'were no better or no worse off than anyone else.'
He also insisted he was doing his best to find a job.
The new Coalition government has announced sweeping changes to the housing benefit system, which will come into effect next April.
According to a council spokesman, "The sums of money that many families claim for housing in the capital and elsewhere is an example of an unreasonably generous benefits system, which is open to abuse."
