London's Immigrant Council Benefits Scandal

The coalition government has announced this week a £400 weekly cap on housing benefit as part of it's benefits reforms. In some areas of London people are receiving upwards of £1,000 a week in housing benefit to help pay their rent.

In this video we see a single woman from Jamaica with 5 children, renting a 4 bedroom house in Islington, one of London's most exclusive boroughs. The house costs her £690 a week rent from a private landlord, of which £583 is paid by the state.

The woman is complaining that under the new £400 housing benefit cap she won't be able to afford to pay the rent. She earns the minimum wage working as a care assistant but doesn't want to move somewhere cheaper because it wouldn't be convenient.

In the news clip we see various people trying to justify and defend her position, including the news presenter. Some might argue this is an absolutely outrage. How can an unskilled foreign immigrant earning the minimum wage and relying on state benefits be living in a £700 a week rented house at the tax payers expense? How many others are there like her across London? With the majority of the UK's immigration population (including 40% of black people) living in London, the total bill for housing benefit must be mind boggling.

A government minister actually talks some sense for once. Lord Freud, the Minister for Welfare Reform said people who are claiming benefits should be living within their means and will be moved into appropriate accomodation. He pointed out the fact that many hard working people who don't claim housing benefits (and have to make do with sub standard council properties), resent the fact that others like this Jamaican lady who earn less and claim state benefits are living in plush private properties.

So basically this woman thinks its perfectly reasonable she comes to the UK and lives beyond her means at the expense of you and I, the tax payers, so she can spend her earnings on things like a nice widescreen tv and plush furniture. Scandalous.