Couple on £7000 a month benefits……….

Unfortunately not the first children and animals to be in this situation and our system at the moment is almost certain to let it happen again.
Lack of support, lack of empathy,lack of detailed knowledge of the situation.....how many more lacks.
Though I do wonder who filled in all the benefit claims for them surely they should have observed and alerted the S.S.
Or were they powerless to do anything?

It makes me furious when the media suck up to the right wing by emphasising the very rare instances of this sort of benefit problem - they give the impression that this is the norm and that the UK is awash with scroungers.

paddyann54

These cases are very rare ,thats why they make the news .Its not the norm for any benefit claimant to receive huge amounts of money despite the right wing press trying to peddle it as the truth.
Most people on benefits are struggling to make ends meet ,as the rise in FB use shows

True.

Never mind the benefits situation (and how typical of the media to headline this) what about those children? Were there no health visitors going in? Did school not notice they were not there? The system of child protection seems to have broken down here, and that is what really matters.

Smileless2012

being removed from your home regardless of how bad it is and being taken away from your parents, regardless of how bad they were will be traumatic. Being parted from siblings, especially the younger children will only exacerbate that trauma.

Hopefully there will be regular contact between the children if they're unable to live together.

I think Smileless that you and others might be assuming that the siblings would be supportive of each other and have a bond.

In my experience, and I do have experience of cases similar to this, not though as bad, siblings can be part of the abuse suffered by the youngest and weakest. It’s learned behaviour and an element of survival of the fittest.

It’s hard to even imagine I know.

It's heart breaking isn't it.

being removed from your home regardless of how bad it is and being taken away from your parents, regardless of how bad they were will be traumatic. Being parted from siblings, especially the younger children will only exacerbate that trauma.

Hopefully there will be regular contact between the children if they're unable to live together.

In what was described as a “particularly dreadful example of child neglect”, the youngest children were found to be pale and underweight, could not sit at a table and were unable to use a knife and fork from The Telegraph

Citizens Advice will help people fill in benefit forms.

35 dogs?! I cannot imagine the smell, the noise, and the mess. 7 children living in squalor. How did the neighbours not know/not care enough to ring RSPCA/NSPCC/the police?

Officers who arrived at the scene spoke to Bennett through an open bathroom window, before entering the property to find a seven-year-old covered in animal faeces sitting near a dead dog, Lewes Crown Court heard. From The Telegraph

They were obviously smart enough to fill the forms in, plenty on benefits incapable of work that have high intelligence when it suits them.

Why were they allowed to have 35 dogs that’s ridiculous

fairfraise

I can only hope, like others, that the children can be cared for together, although seven is a lot for people to take on. I do hope they end up in good care.

It’s very unlikely, given that they will all probably have complex needs that will require enormous individual amounts of adult attention.

Actually I don’t think it would be for the best for them all to be together per se. Better for their individual needs to be assessed and then to be placed with adults best suited to meet those needs.

Being altogether could also make it difficult to change patterns of behaviour they have all shared.

It would be difficult to keep the siblings together which is very sad.

I can only hope, like others, that the children can be cared for together, although seven is a lot for people to take on. I do hope they end up in good care.

If the parents have a low IQ who was helping them fill in the claims forms?
There are frequently posts on here recounting the difficulty of such forms. According to the report the £1600 a month was for their mortgage payments. As far as I understand payment would only be for mortgage interest, but I could be wrong.
I’m taking this report with a pinch of salt.
However, if true, how sad.

I think prison sentences for that amount of time show that the neglect was criminal

I just can't find empathy for people hwho abuse children. Those children will carry life long trauma even with the best therapy. They will be missing vital brain connections that can be worked around but not healed

It makes me so angry

I read somewhere that the gentleman in the property had dialled 999 saying he was going to attack his wife. No idea if that's true but maybe he'd reached a point where he knew something had to be done.

So awfully sad about the children and surviving dogs. Hopefully they will now get the chance to live happier lives.

To be able to exist in such an environment is so hard to comprehend. Hopefully the couple will get help in prison.

Without knowing the specific details relating to neglect it's impossible to say whether punishment was an appropriate response.

Its pretty clear that things were far from functional.

Disability payments are given for that reason: if your ability to function is impaired.

MissAdventure

I'm slightly cynical they were receiving that much.

The whole set up sounds like the house from hell, though, and the family was known to be problematic.

They could be if some of the children have special needs.

A member of my family deals with the educational needs of SEN children. What can be claimed for soon mounts up.

Of course SEN do deserve all the extra help they get. I had better make that clear before anyone pounces!

The average cost to keep a prisoner in prison for a year is £48,000 I think.

So this couple is costing us far more now.

The foster carrers and hopefully future parents of these children will also be allowed to claim help.

If we don't begrudge the amount to put these disgusting people in prison, we shouldn't begrudge good families and often working families, getting help to raise childreñ

It needs to be remembered that in itself, it is available to anyone who fits the criteria, whatever the circumstances.
Yes, and there doesn't seem to be any suggestion that the benefits had been fraudulently claimed.

Is jailing the parents an appropriate response? Presumably they were living in the squalid house along with the children, which suggests to me that it was inadequacy rather than malice that led to the neglect. Almost certainly the children should be in care, but maybe the parents should be helped rather than punished.

Perhaps,with disability payments, too.

It needs to be remembered that in itself, it is available to anyone who fits the criteria, whatever the circumstances.

Yes, of course the children's welfare comes first, although as their ages ranged from 4 - 17, I am not sure I would describe them as 'babies'

But that does not mean we should ignore the other aspects of the case. This family had been living in this squalor for years. Did no one really not notice, did no one complain to some official, about the number of animals, even if they did not notice the state of the children. 9 adults and 35 dogs in a three bedroomed house.

I have googled the case and read the police and local paper reports and they all seem clear that the families £7,000 a month income came from benefits.

It would be interesting to know how that was calculated, even assuming all the children were on disability benefits, it still seems difficult to understand. To qualify for the higher rates the child would need to be very seriously disabled and surely that would require a significant involvement of GPs, nurses, carers and could any of those possibly have gone into the house and seen the neglect and squalor and done nothing. It seems unlikely. And what was the money spent on, since it clearly was not spent on the children, dogs or house?. There has been no reporting of drugs in the case