Legal News
Large Families Found To Claim over £11 Million in Welfare Benefits Each Year (12 January 2012)
Date: 12/01/2012
According to figures released through a Freedom of Information Act request, almost 200 families in the UK are claiming in excess of £60,000 in welfare benefits each year. The statistics have shown that 190 families with a minimum of ten children aged less than 18 years, in which one or both parents receive an unemployment benefit, are eligible to receive £61,183 per year from the state. Almost 100,000 individuals receiving welfare benefits have at least four children, with over 900 claimants having a minimum of eight children.
Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, wishes to impose a £26,000 cap on welfare benefits on workless families. Sources have claimed that the cap is necessary to prevent families who do not wish to work from having additional children in order to raise revenue. Mr. Duncan Smith has told of how he believes that Labour left the welfare benefits system in “a sorry state” and claimed that it was unfair that welfare benefit claimants could receive greater incomes than working families. Mr. Duncan Smith believes that the cap on welfare benefits would restore fairness to the welfare benefits system while ensuring that the state provided support to those who required it.
Matthew Sinclair, from the TaxPayers’ Alliance, stated that taxpayers felt that it was unfair that benefits claimants received much more than hard-working individuals and that the system had to change. Mr. Sinclair said that the Government was right to take action.
Duncan Lewis’ welfare benefits solicitors can determine whether families are eligible to receive financial support from the state.