Single mother-of-six finds £2m mansion on the net... and then gets YOU to pay £7,000 a month rent

Published 15th Feb 2010

A single mother-of-six is getting more than £80,000 a year from the taxpayer to live in a £2million mansion in an exclusive London suburb.

Essma Marjam, 34, is given almost £7,000 a month in housing benefits to pay the rent on the five-bedroom villa just yards from Sir Paul McCartney's house and Lord's cricket ground.

She also receives an estimated £15,000 a year in other payouts, such as child benefit, to help look after her children, aged from five months to 14.
Essma Marjam with one of her six children pictured outside the house in Maida Vale, central London, which costs taxpayers almost £7,000 a month

Essma Marjam with one of her six children pictured outside the house in Maida Vale, central London, which costs taxpayers almost £7,000 a month

The four-storey house in Maida Vale has five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a double living room, large fitted kitchen-diner with French doors on to the landscaped garden and a state-of-the art buzzer entry system.

Astonishingly, it is understood Miss Marjam found the house on the internet through a private letting agency, rather than waiting for Westminster council to give her a vacant property on their books.

She then applied to the council for the £1,600-a-week benefit - the maximum amount the council allows.

Miss Marjam said: 'I moved here at the beginning of the month as I'm entitled to a five-bedroom house.

'I was in a three-bedroom council house but I needed a bigger place once my new baby came along. So the council agreed to pay the £1,600 a week to a private landlord as they didn't have any houses big enough.

'I'm separated from my husband. He's a solicitor in Derby, but I don't know if he's working at the moment. He doesn't pay anything towards the kids. Things are quite difficult between us.

'The house is lovely and very big, but I don't have enough furniture to fill it.'

She does, however, have two large flat-screen televisions and several leather sofas, plus a large amount of children's toys scattered over the wooden floorboards.

During the week, vans from Argos and other home stores dropped off large purchases.

Miss Marjam does not work, as she spends all day looking after her children - Zekia, 14, Abdulhakim, 13, Jihad, 11, Hamza, ten, Ayman, two, and five-month-old Nasir.

The four eldest have the surname Benjamin, while the two youngest have the surname Khan.

Labour's controversial Local Housing Allowance enables council tenants to receive such high benefits to pay private landlords.

The maximum that can be claimed is set by central government and the allowances can be huge, leaving the taxpayer to foot the bill.

The Daily Mail has highlighted other outrageous examples, such as the single mother of eight receiving £90,000 a year to live in a £2.6million Notting Hill mansion.

Taxpayers are also picking up the £6,400-a-month bill to house Nasra Warsame, her seven children and her elderly mother in central London, with Westminster council also providing Mrs Warsame's husband and their eighth child with a two-bedroom flat nearby.

In total, 16 families are living in million-pound-plus London properties funded by the Local Housing Allowance.

Phillipa Roe, a Westminster councillor, said: 'We would like to see the entire system changed as the current rules are wrong and do not offer taxpayers value for money.

'We want to have more control to limit the amount of money which is paid out. Local councils are far better placed to determine benefit levels than ministers in Whitehall who won't know the facts on the ground.

'The Government has repeatedly pledged to reform housing benefit but failed to do so. The whole system needs a radical review and ministers should stop dragging their heels and get on and do it.'

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: 'It is not right that in London high rents have been able to distort the system, resulting in a small number of people getting excessively high payments.

'We took immediate action and capped the Local Housing Allowance in April. The plans we published in December go even further and will exclude high rents from LHA rate calculations.

'Only a very small minority of people receive such high rates of housing benefit. The average payment is £81 a week.'

Source: ' Daily Mail '

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