Family claim £22,000 in benefits for being fat and lazy
Dear James Purnell,
Seeing as you are quite happy to upset the socialists in the Labour camp with your welfare reforms, I thought that might want to hear about this little story I stumbled across in today’s papers. If you are genuinely serious about tackling benefit fraud and getting those who are capable of work back into the workplace, may I suggest listening very carefully to the following story….
Meet the Chawners, Philip Chawner, 53, and his 57-year-old wife Audrey both weigh 24st. Their daughter Emma, 19, weighs 17st, while her older sister Samantha, 21, weighs 18st. Every year, this family claims £22,508 in benefits, equivalent to a take-home pay from £30,000. The Chawners, who haven’t worked in 11 years, claim their weight is a hereditary condition and the money they receive is insufficient to live on. The family claim to spend £50 a week on food and consume 3,000 calories each a day. The recommended maximum intake is 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men.
Each week, Mr and Mrs Chawner, who have been married for 23 years, receive £177 in income support and incapacity benefit. Mrs Chawner is paid an extra £330-a-month disability allowance for epilepsy and asthma, both a result of being overweight. Mr Chawner also gets £71 a month after developing Type 2 diabetes because of his size. He was on a waiting list for a gastric band last year, but a heart condition made the operation unsuitable. Their daughter Samantha receives £84 in Jobseekers’ Allowance each fortnight while Emma, who is training to be a hairdresser, gets £58 every two weeks under a hardship fund for low-income students. I also want you to listen very carefully to the excuses put forward by various members of the Chawner family. Mr Chawner says: “What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table. It’s not our fault we can’t work. We deserve more.” Mrs Chawner says: “We have cereal for breakfast, bacon butties for lunch and microwave pies with mashed potato or chips for dinner. All that healthy food, like fruit and veg, is too expensive. We’re fat because it’s in our genes. Our whole family is overweight.” Emma says: “I’m a student and don’t have time to exercise,” she said. “We all want to lose weight to stop the abuse we get in the street, but we don’t know how.”
In short, they stuff their faces with chips and pies and deliberately ignore healthier food, they get incredibly fat yet claim that this is beyond their control, they inflict physical problems on themselves and subsequently claim to be incapable of work, a student is claiming not to have time for exercise and to cap it all off they protest that they have no idea how to lose weight. Guess who is paying for their slovenliness and laziness? I am. You are. We all are. It always amuses when I hear idiots on the Left claim that people don’t choose to live on benefits, that people on benefits are desperate to get out of their current situation, that our benefit system is already too tough. Oh, really. We are paying people to sit at home, shovel food down their throat, ignore all the medical advice on healthy eating and then claim to be victims at the taxpayers’ expense. Doesn’t sound like a bad life, does it.
Yours sincerely,
A.Tory
Witanagemot Blogs
There’s no excuse to be made for these people, but I wonder whether they are typical of people who receive benefit. A lot of those on JSA & the like are doing voluntary work or otherwise trying to improve their lot.
Certainly these individuals should not receive disability benefit if what is said about them is true. But I am always suspicious of any proposed “crackdowns” etc because there is no way I can see of distiguishing between the worthy & the unworthy. I’ve seen more cases of genuinely disabled people being refused support than I have of fraudsters. We can all make a judgment on these particular people, & I do, but there are cases where it’s a lot harder.
These types are despicable & disgusting, as are those who rear large families on the welfare state, whom I would discourage by abolishing child benefit for families with more than 3 children. Do you remember Alison Goulding? Now, she & those like her are clearly irresponsible & a disgrace & shouldn’t have their lifestyle choices as they are obviously choices. But I question whether they could be singled out without harming decent folk who happen to be on benefits at a certain point.
Perhaps this is just my views speaking as I don’t think adults on benefits are half as bad as mass numbers of children being brought up on benefits. & I can’t imagine those girls reproducing themselves.
I did get a bit wound up. “We don’t know how to” indeed. It’s actually very easy to live healthily on a low income, as poor Asians often do, but then they work harder in the kitchen! You’d be surprised at how expensive junk food & takeaways actually are, particularly given that they offer so little in health benefits.
As infuriating as this family are, attacking them & their kind might have unintended bad consequences for the truly worthy. The problem is, any campaign to increase social responsibility is going to bounce off them. They are already, & justly, vilified but they ignore it. They also ignore information about health. This is a problem which too many on the “left” ignore, but I question whether the “right” answers would work.
PS-
Can’t help wondering whether these hate targets all browse the internet & what they make of being vilified & used as exemplars of what is wrong with society.
These people have things far too easy.They need to be made an example of to dissuade
Sigh. I hate the fact that obesity is classed as a disability. I hate it because its the only disability I can think of that you can escape by not putting pies in your mouth and by getting off your bum once in a while. I can’t do that with my MS.
I can’t imagine those girls reproducing themselves.
Sorry, Asquith, but I can. Or, more pertinently, I can imagine them suing for IVF as their reproductive systems should be well damaged under all that blubber…
Please tell me you made this up, LFAT. Please!
What irritates me is that helthy food is actually cheaper. OK sundried tomatoes are a bit pricey, but basic veg are some of the cheapest things in a supermarket. You just need some skill to cook them so that they come out nice.
And you need to be willing to bother with a spot of cooking.
I too saw this in the Mail and at first thought some wag had photoshopped the picture.
Alas no. I must confess that I don’t know where they shop but £50 in exchange for 84000 calories seems very good value!!
I could shop there for a total of £7 a week. I smell a porky or four.
oops sorry,
This is just pure greed.These people have things far too easy.They need to be made an example of to dissuade others from trying the same con.The more you pander to types like this the more will come forward.What are they spending their money on,I bet they get rent and council tax paid.
I would give them a cookbook,vegetables are cheaper than junk food,and exercise machines and cut benefit.They would get an increase for every pound lost.
We need a complete change in attitude to welfare and a need to take a lot more responsibility for ourelves instead of relying on other peoples money.It may be difficult and hardship for one generation but needs must.We must learn to sauy no.For a start food vouchers instead of some benefits too,and can only spent on food,not booze and cigarettes.
I live on a rough estate and I don’t agree with asquith at all, you can tell the scroungers from the genuine easily.The benefits dept should do more home visits,including unanounced ones to check on them.
They also got booted out of their home last year.
The parents seem to revel in the attention, including twice sticking Emma – who appears to be the only member of family willing to work – on the X-Factor, the first time in a home made dress. The way the MEN described it, it sounded so torturous that you half expected Amnesty International to set up a donation fund for her.
Although I’m sure they’ll earn some dough from the media – we just love our circus freaks in the UK, the mother just needs a beard and the BBC3 can do another of its Victorian circus style documentaries on them.
Expect a new series of ‘Celebrity’ Fit Club featuring these four cowering behind the sofa as someone brings in some grapes, a stick of celery and a stepper to the theme of The Omen.
I do wonder, from time to time, if reverting to rationing would solve the problem… Seriously, though, why can’t benefits (in certain circumstances) that are meant to buy food be paid for in tokens, like £10 of fresh veg, £5 of bum roll, £3 of bread and so on rather than just giving blimps money to spend on pies and (I’ll bet) fags? Too prescriptive? I dunno – I’m paying for this…
@Shaun
That’s actually a great idea. If you’re on benefits the Government does your groceries for you, I’m sure the supermarkets would happily put tenders in.
Seeing their faces light-up as the Tesco Home Delivery van pulls up, only for them to drop like a stone when they see the contents are fruit, veg and wholemeal food.
I suspect you could even get You’ve Been Framed to pay towards the costs, just so they could stick the sight of chins and jowls wobbling in anguish, sorrow, rage and hunger on prime time telly. Harry Hill would have a field day.
@Obsidian
There you go – and I’ve saved ITV into the bargain! Now, where’s my cheque…?
You can also, for example, buy lentils & brown rice in bulk. A large bag of onions, potatoes & what have you. All you need is a brain & the ability to cook.
The wastefulness & sheer vileness of the average English diet is appalling.
& yes, that’s what I do, which is why I maintain good health on less than £20,000 a year. I also have chosen not to breed.
The mere suggestion that microwaveable pies are cheaper than pasta and sauce or some veggies just makes me more angry about what has happened. The theme of The Omen did spring to mind when I saw the family portrait (amazing they could squeeze them all on one shot).
I also strongly support vouchers rather than cash for every form of benefit, be it child benefit or JSA. We need to make sure people are using benefits for the purposes that they were intended for.
1.Go to the supermarket
2.Buy a variety of vegetables and some olive oil and rice
3.Go home, put the veg in the oven on a tray, pour oil on them, cook at 200 for about an hour whilst boiling rice
4.Serve with cheapish red wine(optional)
5.Eat
Even students know this-it is called BASICS.
“I’m a student and don’t have time to exercise”
How can you say that with a straight face (or even a round face).
In a week where a student studying medicine will have to pay vastly greater fees, we have fat wastes of space like this hoovering public money into their maws. Also, can you get epilepsy from being fat? Is there any medical condition you cannot get from being fat these days?
Anyway, look on the bright side – we won’t be paying out a pension to this lot, I can guarantee that.
Some form of alcohol is the law. In my student days, the local Select & Scam used to do 3 bottles of wine for £10. Many was the night when we’d have a house party (ok, room party) & I’d have my 3 bottles.
You can also have a good night on port or sherry for £10-20 & get yourself ruined.
If you don’t mind things getting messy, limoncello will give you a good kicking.
“All you need is a brain & the ability to cook.”
You don’t even need that, or at least you do but it is easily obtainable. The problem here is that their disgusting appetites have been pandered to by the state for years. If they had to fend for themselves they would soon discover how to eat cheaply and healthily.
BTW I don’t think these people are isolated cases in the welfare system. These people are the natural product OF the welfare system, or at least among the ‘lifers’. Why wouldn’t a system which removes the need for you to think, to have self-respect, to even spent five minutes a day thinking about how to live, not reduce people to a wobbling mess of indulged appetites?
For 50 a week what sh**e are they eating.That has to be a lie.
Still if you look in all the teenage mums trolleys it’s the same.Not a green shoot in sight.
“What irritates me is that helthy food is actually cheaper. “
Yes, it is. But then you have to do more to process it than tabbing little holes in the plastic cover, placing it in the microwave and waiting for the ‘ping’.
And it’s not like these poor people have a lot of free time on their hands to cook and se…
Oh, wait.
You would have thought they’d have enough time to waddle around a supermarket and look at prices, what with not having had a job for years and years.
OK, a flat rate Citizen’s Income scheme would be better, as people like this would be more likely to find jobs.
But the real question is, what upsets you more, six families like this on £22k each, or one super-quangista like Trevor Phillips on £130k a year?
The entire cost of working age and child benefits that keeps ten million people alive is half the cost of the superfluous three million public sector leeches.
What we need is that court of public opinion that Hattie was on about.
“Should the Roley-poly family be entitled to more food? Should these weeble people be entitled to 2 seats on the bus for the price of 1? M’lud I suggest that theses Teletubbies should not be. Furthermore, the requests for bungalow housing, the leveling of their gently sloping driveway, Primark slouch pants vouchers, a maid, an annual grant from the lottery fund for new sofas and chairs. A waddle in shower unit, a bed hoist, bed pan and sundry medical facilities, 24 hour care. An entitlement to a LandCruiser and low loader in order to haul their shopping back from the supermarket. A selection of oven gloves that may serve as mittens in the cold winter and an ice cream truck parked in their garden area in the summer.
Further M’lud, I cannot believe that in all conscience we could agree to the request for fisherman’s waders to prevent thigh chapping. That the Dough sisters receive leopard skin fashions clogs for their dainty feet.
That the inflatable husband might receive special training assistance to enable him to operate a door unaided; and that said doorways throughout their abode be reconfigured to compensate for their ample figures.
That the “weight limit 4 tons” sign on the local bridge be removed as offensive, that a Thornton’s be permitted to operate as a business from their garden shed and that if in the future a magnetron gravity device is found a viable proposition, that these wobble bums be considered first recipients.
I suggest we should examine none of these outrageous requests, and M’Lord, instead I have a counter proposal. I suggest that instead we grant the family a Burka each, which, while comfortable and practical and easy for them to wear, also has the considerable advantage of obscuring their ugly, greedy faces.”
“But the real question is, what upsets you more, six families like this on £22k each, or one super-quangista like Trevor Phillips on £130k a year?”
There’s enough ire to go around for both of them, Mark…
Julia, sure, but sacking one Trevor Phillips is quicker and far more gratifying that explaining to these people that although their benefits income has gone down slightly (because it has been replaced with a Citizen’s Basic Income), it isn’t means tested, so if they need more they can go and work for it without worrying about losing benefits.
I second what mark said,it may even snowball.As for the others,I hear the well boiled cabbage diet works a treat and also produces lots of wind
.
It would indeed be immensely satisfying to see the back of someone who proudly goes around telling everyone that he’s desperate to destroy people who have committed such heinous crimes as having white skin and possessing a decent education.
these fat useless peices of garbage should be given what they’re worth! …. **** all! the blonde thing even had the cheek (and chins) to go on x factor as well? some chance luv! im surprised you didnt try to eat poor simon cowell! although he might have got stuck in those teeth! maybe she should go to the dentist (for free as well) and get them sorted before going to the papers and posing for photos like that!
i feel sick!
Ah,
I thought I recognised his face, he’s the bloke who used to wheeze around with the big red book and jump out and surprise people. Shame life has treat him so harshly since those heady days.
This is the Life, I think it was called.
“what upsets you more, six families like this on £22k each, or one super-quangista like Trevor Phillips on £130k a year?”
Both, there isn’t a choice here. They are two sides of the same coin of tax-leeching, though Trevor Phillips should go first because of his public influence and first class permit to travel on BBC airwaves.
Having been jumped by 7 Asians last night, and suspecting there’ll be little in the way of justice, or indeed interest, when I report it to Plod, I’ll have to go with rather seeing Trevor ‘equality ho-ho-ho’ Philips having to find a real job.
I’m a bit fan of equality when it means equal rights for all, not when some get to be more equal than others in the eyes of officialdom to try and make up for the past, societies resistance to change and the actions of the far-right. Trevor Phillips always seems to come across as the latter type.
Has anyone seen the film “Idiocracy” which shows the long term effect of these families on society? When everyone has dumbed down to their level,when everyone is obese and eating McDonalds because there is nothing else because everyone’s IQ is so low they have forgotten how to grow proper food. In the film it is set 500 years in the future but depressingly it seems to be here already. I believe the film was withdrawn in America because it was a bit too close to the truth and it never went on general release here,only straight to DVD.
Dear The Chawner Family,
You should be ashamed of yourselves! – you are a bunch of FAT, LAZY, STUPID knackers who spunge off the people who are working all hours to feed their families healthy food.
I blame the parents… obviousley your revolting obesity is actually due to a severe lack of brain cells, aswell as complete laziness.
Get off you FAT bums and do some excersise. If you haven’t already broken the suspension in your car, sell it and walk to the supermarket and start burning some calories.
If you are too “ill” or “tired” to work then what do you do all day??? Apart from microwave junk food?? Perhaps you are illiterate which is why you can’t read about how to lead a healthy life. Learn to cook. Then you can actually make healthy meals which believe it or not, can actually have far fewer calories than pie and chips! If you don’t know what calories are, to make it simple for you (if you are too thick to count, buy an abacus) they print the amount of calories in a meal on the back of every food packet – count how many you eat and when you’ve eaten 2,000, STOP EATING… and that’s 2000 a DAY, not and HOUR!
Mr & Mrs Chawner, you are being very selfish as you will probably die very young and leave your daughters with no parents. And i’d like to ask the daughters – have you ever had a boyfriend? I’d be surprised if the anwswer was yes unless they’ve been carrying a white stick! They should charge you double when you go into clubs and pubs because you probably break the toilet seats!
Basically, if you dont get a grip on your greedy appetites and your laziness, you will all die young and have miserable lives. If you’re too tired to work, you can at least work on a supermrket check-out (you get to sit down all day!).
You are the annoying people who take up 2 seats on a bus, 2 seats on a train and overflow your fat on planes to other passengers seats who have paid the same for their tickets… you chould be charged more as you are over-weight. You all weigh enough for 2 people. I work out 2 hours every day and i can’t say i like it but i do it because i have to, to stay healthy and a healthy weight. You digust me.
Tax the Fat!
Yours Sincerely
CLB
Unfortunately, the whole ‘you’re going to die a lot sooner than you want to’ message doesn’t seem to be having much of an effect on them.
Gasp as they waddle to their own defence! Marvell as excuses spew from their voluminous blow-holes! Pity them for being abused for blagging free money!
I’m appalled that the beeb is giving them a platform, while simultaneously amazed at the structure engineering a literal platform would require!