Shameless UK Family Proudly Living on Benefits

Living off the UK taxpayers for decades, a multi-generational family enjoys their life on the public's dime.

"People don't understand how hard it is to keep a family like this going - no wonder we can't work. How could I go out to work with all these children at home? Local people call us scroungers and that is so unfair. We need the money to keep the family going.

"We get about £2,700 a month in benefits, from income support to disability allowance, and child benefit for the kids. Kyle is at college and he gets the Education Maintenance Allowance of £30 a week, and we get Housing Benefit, too. Our rent is £40 a week, so our benefits don't go far."

Jean Thompson, 66, hasn't worked for over 40 years. She lives in Neath, Swansea, with husband Glyn, 61, a retired plumber. They have three grown-up children, two of whom live on benefits, including son Steven Martin, 39.

Jean says: "My own dad worked down the pit, but my mum didn't work, so I suppose I wanted the same life that she had when I grew up. I just wanted to be at home and live off other people.

"I left school at 15 with no qualifications and worked in a sewing factory for a short while then gave it up and went on the dole instead. Even when my kids were older, I didn't go back to work because I didn't want to. I never get bored. I just sew, knit and clean.

"I don't worry about the example I set to my kids or the fact that two of them don't work. It's up to them what they do, it's their life, not mine, so it's not my problem. I don't think my desire never to work and to live off the state and my husband rubbed off on Steven. He makes his own decisions.

"I'm certainly not angry that Steven doesn't have a job. He's got children, that's his job. And I don't worry that he's setting a bad example to his children - that's up to him."

Seriously, there is a lot more to read about this quaint family that believes that other taxpayers should be the main providers for their family.

American socialists, this may not be your goal, but it will be the results of your activism if you succeed. Me, I'm going to dig my heels in.