Taxpayers hit by the credit crunch fund the swish seven-bedroom home enjoyed free by Afghan migrant Toorpakai Saindi and her family. And her landlord is raking in rent of more than £12,000 a month from a local council — funded by taxpayers. That’s DOUBLE the normal market value of the seven-bedroom property, located in a swish West London street peppered with the Mercedes and BMW cars of private owners. Yesterday Saindi, who also gets an estimated £400 a week in child and local tax benefits, said: “It’s a lot of money, but the council pay it. “This is their problem. I don’t know why they pay so much.” Landlord Ajit Panesar, who is acting within his rights, also referred The Sun to Ealing Council. They blamed the Government, saying it set the rate. But Whitehall insisted the council could have put Ms Saindi in a cheaper home. The root of the potty payouts lies with the Local Housing Allowance — rolled out nationally on April 7. It enables tenants and landlords to find out the maximum amount of LHA available before an agreement is reached. In July Ms Saindi, who has four sons and three daughters aged eight to 22, approached the council after being made homeless. They had a legal obligation to find her a seven-bedroom home. But they did not have one big enough on their books and so turned to a private landlord, Mr Panesar. He fixed a price for his Acton property which the council checked with the Rent Service — an executive agency of the Department for Work and Pensions. They then advised the council what they should pay.
It turned out to be a staggering £12,458 a month — partly because under boundary changes implemented in April, Acton is crazily lumped in with mega-rich Westminster. Yesterday estate agents Foxtons said similar properties in Acton command rents of around £6,000 a month, top whack.
Ms Saindi, who came to the UK from Afghanistan seven years ago, said: “I always thought the housing benefit was a lot, but I’m told that is what it is for homes like this here.” Mr Panesar said: “I can’t help it if the law says I should get paid that amount of money.” One local said: “It is unbelievable. Her house is on one of the nicest streets in Acton. "People pay hundreds of thousands for the privilege of living there.” Mark Wallace, campaign director of the Tax Payers’ Alliance, said: “The system has gone seriously wrong when one family is costing taxpayers so much. “The people running the welfare system seem to have forgotten money doesn’t grow on trees. This family could be helped without the need for such a huge bill.”
Hello Mr. Kemp. I enjoy reading your interesting and insightful articles, but still no blog content to increase your African readership.
ReplyDeleteDear NYC, I am working on it but there does not seem much happening there of late, perhaps you could offer an insight? may be I will pen a note on Burton and Speke, or perhaps Fryer and Isles, their 1972work was truly ground breaking, publihed by Oliver and Boyd, a riviting read, by the way you still have not told me the numbers your voices are telling you for this weeks lottery.
ReplyDelete