EXCLUSIVE: No one in the family works, but still they rake in £30,000 a year in benefits
They treat the welfare state as their personal cashpoint — the more babies they produce and the less work they do, the more money rolls into their free council house. If anybody in the household actually had a job they'd have to earn £30,000 before tax to equal the staggering total they get in handouts.
Incredibly, their monthly kitty has just been swollen by £143 in child benefit because sisters Lizzy and Charlene, both pregnant before 16, gave birth—making their mum Julie a granny at just 34. The girls and their newborn tots now share their three-bedroom home in Blackpool with Mum, her three other children, their stepdad Jerry Campbell and EIGHT dogs. The sisters' boyfriends, who fathered the babies, stay over occasionally. They are rarely in work. Sadly, the McGawley girls are just part of a startling set of statistics that reveal how in Britain today one in 14 babies is born to a teen mum, with 100,000 schoolgirls falling pregnant each year. And it is the taxpayers who are footing the bill.
FIGHT :
As well as Lizzy and Charlene's child benefit, mum Julie gets £263 a month for her brood. She gave up work six years ago suffering depression so, with boyfriend Jerry (together below) as her carer, the family now receives £378 a month income support, £146 disability premium and £721 tax credits. That's on top of £228 housing benefit to cover rent.
Most parents long to deliver a better life for their children. But things don't look set to change. At 15, gymslip mum Lizzy doesn't even feel part of any problem. As she lights a cigarette she revels in underage motherhood—bragging it gives her something better to do than watch Coronation Street. And she says feeding and changing 14-week-old Bailey is much more fun than school. "I was bored when I didn't have the baby," she said. "I'd sit in and watch TV. Now I've got something to do with my time." Chain-smoking Lizzy first got pregnant at 13 with boyfriend Donn Goulden, who was 15, but miscarried after a fight. "Both pregnancies were accidents," she said. "But I don't regret it. I'd love more kids. Me and Donn want to have a football squad."
Lizzy, fingers covered in gold sovereign rings, wants to move in with Donn, who's also dripping with bling. "I should be able to get a council house next year," she said. For now Lizzy shares a tiny room with her baby. By day she fights for a seat on the stained sofa or battered armchair to nurse him. Lizzy still spends most of her time staring at the TV. But she insists she's delighted to be a mum, even if neighbours call her "slag". "I don't care," she said. "They're just jealous." Big sister Charlene, now 16, was certainly jealous—when she discovered Lizzy was pregnant before her.
The girls—who rarely see their own dad although he's in a relationship with the mum of Lizzy's boyfriend Donn—both feature in ITV1 documentary Britain's Youngest Mums And Dads tomorrow night. Desperate to get out of school, Charlene was trying for a baby from 14. She didn't tell boyfriend David Morgan, six years her senior, that she wasn't on the Pill. "I really wanted a baby more then anything else," she admitted. "I thought it would be fun."
Now, just three weeks after giving birth to son Bradley, she confessed: "I don't want another one— it hurt too much. "But it is fun being a mum. And I really liked being pregnant. I loved all the attention." Like Lizzy, Charlene shares a tiny room with her baby and yearns to move out.
The babies' arrival means the three other McGawley sisters—Victoria, 14, Heather, 11, and Julie Ann, six—share the biggest bedroom. Meanwhile Mum and Jerry bed down on the lounge floor, its threadbare carpet matted with dog hair. Julie told us: "We manage fine on the money we get but we need a bigger house. "We were offered a four-bedroom place but you weren't allowed pets. I couldn't let go of the dogs, they're my babies."
When we visited the family the pets were locked in the kitchen, fouling the floor. On being let out they ran through the McDonald's burger bags littering the lounge to crawl all over the sofa, licking the newborn babies who were being nursed. Upstairs was a similar scene with bare boards on the landing and a toilet with no seat in the grimy bathroom. "I'm desperate to move out," complained Julie, puffing on a cigarette then passing it to young Victoria. "But the council have totally ignored our pleas." She said she had warned her girls about getting pregnant when they were 12. "Charlene went on the Pill but came off because it gave her mood swings," she added. "And because of that Lizzy wouldn't take it. "I wouldn't change things for the world, though. I'm really proud of my family and don't care what people think. It's nothing to do with them. They're probably envious." Or maybe they're just furious at having to pay for it all.
But there's no help for hero soldier
ARMY hero Jason Bennett and his family are being forced to sleep on the floor at his parents' house because a council can't find him a home. Corporal Bennett, 33, has just left the forces after 15 years of service. But Warrington Council in Cheshire say they can't find anywhere for him, wife Lynsey, 25, and their three-year-old son Matthew to live.
The couple have now been forced to store all their belongings in his dad's garage until council accommodation can be found. Jason, who starts a new job as a drayman tomorrow, served with the Household Cavalry based in Windsor and saw service in Bosnia, where he saved a young boy's life.
He said: "I decided to leave the army last year after I lost one of my friends in Iraq. But the council don't seem to be bothered about me."
A council spokesman said: "There are currently more than 6,900 people on waiting lists for homes in Warrington. "Mr Bennett and his family are in the highest possible priority bracket for rehousing." An army spokesman said: "We're doing our best to accommodate Jason and his family."
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this article is from News Of The World [ newsoftheworld.co.uk]
