Part 2 I'm moving to england for benefits

Or I would, but I can't stand cold weather. Shay, you go on without me and I'll visit you.

Single mother on benefits is moved into £1m five-bedroom house - funded by the taxpayer

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.



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.

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.