By ROBERT MENDICK A mother-of-five claiming benefits is living in a detached home worth £1million - with taxpayers helping fund her £25,000 annual rent. The luxury five-bedroom home with two sitting rooms, a conservatory and a double garage is being paid for with housing benefits handed out by her local council. Situated in a smart north London street, the £1million home is out of the price range of most families in the UK. The average house price in Britain is £224,064. Mother-of-five Omowunmi Odia is pleased with her new detached house which was worth as much as £1m at the height of the property boom Nigerian single mother Omowunmi Odia moved her family into the home two weeks ago and last night said she was pleased to be living there - although she criticised the large house for having a small bedrooms. The family had been living in a cramped flat before the move. 'I was living in a two-bedroom apartment with my five children and only moved in here two weeks ago,' said Mrs Odia, who is in her thirties. 'They didn't have any council houses big enough for me so I found this one. I like it; the children like it,' she added. Mrs Odia has been living in the UK for 10 years and is entitled to the home under government rules. This five-bedroom London home has an annual rent of £25,000 paid for by taxpayers It has recently been revealed that taxpayers have paid out £14.8billion for housing benefits in Britain in 2006-7. Mrs Odia, who drives a six-year-old family car, had been threatened with homelessness when she was forced out of her flat when a court order was obtained against her. She was rehoused by Barnet council in the spacious property in Edgware, bought by its owners in 2005 for £650,000 but valued at £1million at the height of the property boom. Mrs Odia said the council had tried to rehouse her in Enfield, north London, but she had held out for Edgware, close to her children's schools. One of the bedrooms, she said, was 'no bigger than a shoebox'. She lives off state handouts and has not been in contact with her husband, who remains in Nigeria, for at least three years. The property is unfurnished and most of the rooms are empty bar a leather sofa and armchairs in one of the sitting rooms. More than £4 billion of taxpayers' money is being spent on housing benefit across London - an increase of more than 40 per cent in five years. 'Too little is being done to reduce the bill by helping people become self-reliant,' said Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance. 'The principle of housing benefit should be that it is a safety net designed to help you get back on your feet, not an automatic life-long provision, no questions asked.' Last month an Afghan immigrant and her family of seven were given a £1.2million home to live in. The seven-bedroom house in Ealing, west London cost the taxpayer £150,000 a year. Barnet Council said it had not been involved in finding the property for Mrs Odia and said that she is paid 'considerably less' in housing benefit than the £25,000, but could not provide a figure. Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below? How disgusting! A member of my family, a former serviceman in the British Army, is now incapable of work has to live in a grotty room. The council will not pay housing benefit on the full £75 a week as they say he should get a room for £65 which is an impossibility! The way this country treats it's own people is unbelievable - it stinks! - Elaine, Bournemouth, UK, 10/11/2008 13:44 This government is a joke. Why do they not question how The - John B, Southend on Sea, 10/11/2008 13:43Single mother on benefits is moved into £1m five-bedroom house - funded by the taxpayer
Last updated at 2:03 AM on 11th November 2008
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a woman on benfits is able to run a car and shop at M&S
Also why is it the government are unable to get any money owards the family upkeep from her husband who it seems is back in Nigeria
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
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No wonder the hard working young couples are moving abroad to live, why should they work hard and pay taxes and child care to live in a house not so nice as this, and see their taxes spent supporting this women. Who did she think was going to pay for her large family when she decided to have five children, she did not intend to pay for them herself. Makes me sick and very angry.
- rachel, bracknell+berkshire, 10/11/2008 13:44