'I'm claiming 50k of benefits I don't need': Shameless mother admits to fiddling the system

'I'm claiming 50k of benefits I don't need': Shameless mother admits to fiddling the system

• Stephanie Fennessy-Sharp, 28, lives in a five-bed house paid for with housing benefit
  
• Partner Ian, 56, is 'on the sick' and hasn't worked in 20 years  - despite only suffering headaches once every three weeks
• Stephanie admits they takes advantage of the system but says she'd be 'silly' to turn the handouts down
  

By Deborah Andrews

PUBLISHED: 18:01 EST, 28 May 2012 | UPDATED: 06:33 EST, 29 May 2012

A mother-of-ten has confessed to receiving more than 50k in unemployment benefits from the Government - despite being perfectly capable of going out to work to earn the money herself.

Stephanie Fennessy-Sharp, 29, lives with her partner Ian Sharp and six of their ten children in a five-bedroom detached house in Kent. 

Neither she nor 56-year-old Ian work. Instead, they claim the equivalent of a £72k salary before tax - and it's all down to a skewed benefits system that discourages unemployed claimants from going out to find work.

Ian suffers debilitating headaches that he says prevent him from working. But Stephanie is perfectly healthy - and confesses she could work, but chooses not to because she is better off on benefits.

Shameless: Stephanie, 29, centre, pictured with partner Ian, 56, and their ten children - Bobbie, Cameron, Jack, Stephen, Sian, Charlie, Alex, Summer, Callum and Nicole - says she knows she is taking advantage of the benefits system - but blames the government for making it 'so easy'

In fact, Stephanie currently works a 40-hour-week in a charity shop for free, because she says she is not a 'stereotypical scrounger' and she wants her children to have a strong work ethic. They do not know she is not paid for her charity shop work, she says.

But Stephanie, who says she volunteers to 'give something back to society', says in an interview with Closer magazine that it makes more sense for her to work for free than to get a job that would pay a fraction of her handouts and lose her benefits.

Stephanie, who used to work in a shop before leaving work after having her second child, has three children of her own, Jack, 10, Charlie, eight, and Steven, six, with her ex-husband, and is stepmother to Ian's seven children - Bobbie, 19, Nicole, 16, Alexandra, 14, Sian, 13, Callum, 10, Cameron, seven, and Summer, three from his relationship with his ex-wife.

She says that she dreamed of being a teacher before having children put paid to her goal.

Before she split with the father of her three children, she lived in a three-bedroom house, paid for with housing benefit, and claimed income support, child benefit, child tax credits and council tax benefit.

When she subsequently met Ian, who left his job as a factory worker 20 years ago after he began suffering migraines, she took on the role as his permanent carer - enabling her to claim carer's allowance in addition to Ian's £60 a week incapacity benefit.

Grace and favour: Stephanie, her partner Ian and six of their ten children live in a five-bedroom house in leafy Kent paid for with housing benefits

It also allows Stephanie to be exempt from the Jobseekers Allowance rules, meaning she does not lose her benefits when she fails to look for employment.

To receive carer's allowance, Stephanie should be caring for Ian 35 hours a week, which she admits she doesn't need to, given that Ian suffers from headaches only once every few weeks. 

Between them, the family claim £4,524 child benefit, £14,456 tax credits, £1,200 council tax benefit and £8,320 incapacity bene fit.

They also receive £20,400 housing benefit a year, which works out at £1,700 a month. In total, they get £48,900 a year.

They were given a four-bedroom council house in April 2010, which they swapped in February 2011 for a privately rented five-bedroom house in Erith after they complained of damp. Their new house, in a leafy suburban area, has a large garden, driveway and a garage for their Toyota Previa people carrier.

'The benefits are being offered to me, so I'd be silly to turn them down. I know taxpayers are being punished â€" I hate taking their money. But we're being allowed to get away with it,' Stephanie says

 

Stephanie, who admits some of the benefits paid to her she does not even need, says in that she and her family are not 'scroungers who watch TV all day.'.

'We're taking advantage of the system, but that's the system's fault â€" we'd be silly not to with so many mouths to feed,' she told Closer.

'It's ridiculous, but I'm better off volunteering than earning â€" we're well off and I'm not going to give that up until I have to.'

Worryingly, Stephanie's situation is far from unusual. Government statistics show that the annual benefits bill has reached almost £13bn.

Stephanie, who says she is smart with her money, never buying expensive treats and using only secondhand clothes, is candid about the fact they are playing the benefits system to its fullest.

She says: 'Obviously, I could work and I'd like to. I feel guilty about how much we claim â€" we don't even need a five-bedroom house as the kids could share. But it's a nice area with good schools.

'We got the upgrade after we told the council we didn't like our old house â€" it was damp and one of the kids' bedrooms was by the front door, which worried me. It's nice having the extra space for when Ian's other kids stay. 

'The benefits are being offere d to me, so I'd be silly to turn them down. I know taxpayers are being punished â€" I hate taking their money. But we're being allowed to get away with it,' she adds.

'The minimum wage is too low and you lose your benefits if you work, but they're too easy to get if you don't work'

 

The mother, who has nine GSCEs at grade A to C, says that she comes frmo hard-working stock and being jobless goes 'against the grain'.

'My dad works on the London Underground and I want my kids to get good jobs. I worry people look at us and think, ‘Look at that trampy benefits family.'

She says she works in the the charity shop from 9am to 5.30pm four days a week because she doesn't want to fall into the trap of 'no job, no confidence.

'I want to meet new people â€" and teach my kids a work ethic. My young children think I get paid for working at the charity shop.'

Stephanie insists the job gives her a sense of pride - but that if she were to work in a shop for a wage, the money she would be paid (she estimates £13,000) wouldn't cover her rent.

'I don't have a choice,' she told Closer. 'I feel like this situation has been forced upon us by the Government.

Read more: The full feature appears in this week's Closer magazine, on sale now

'The minimum wage is too low and you lose your benefits if you work, but they're too easy to get if you don't work.'

The Government plans to introduce a Reform Bill next year, which aims to introduce an annual cap of £26,000 on benefits.

But Stephanie and Ian could be exempt because Ian is off work 'on the sick'.

Surprisingly, Stephanie is philosophical about one day losing her benefits, saying that if they were to go, the family would have to make cutbacks.

They would move to a smaller house, get rid of mobiles and the Internet, she says. 'It'll be tough â€" but I understand it has to hap pen. There has to be an overhaul,' she says.

'I'm preparing for the change â€" I'm studying for an NVQ in retail and customer service, which I don't have to pay for. If I have to get a job, I want a good one. But, for now, I just have to make the most of the system while I can.'

For his part, Ian says he would love to get a job, but that if he works for more than an hour, he feels 'ill and stressed'.

He takes the children to school and helps with the housework, but says that the exertion means he has to rest if he gets light-headed.

He adds: 'I only get migraines every three weeks, but I qualify for sick pay â€" and if I didn't take it, I wouldn't have any money.'

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