What a wonderful lady.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....rphaned-children.html

What a heart wrenching story, this wonderful woman, (although it is the last thing she would expect) certainly deserves a medal.

Apparently her council has turned down her request for her house to be extended to accommodate her now extended large family.

/// The heroic mum, of Huntingdon Cambridgeshire, was disappointed when she contacted her local council for financial support only to be told to sell her family home. ///

/// Officials suggested she would be better off by moving into council accommodation and claiming benefits, but Julie refused.///

/// Julie also had a grant application for an extension to make her home more suitable turned down by the council. ///

It would seem that if she had all these children by a number of different fathers, and didn't go to work, she would get any amount of help.

Where is the fairness?

[Philtaz]

Nice to see a story about the unlimited commodity that is human kindness for once.

But not uncommon for faceless bureaucrats to deliver their often inexplicable decisions.

Reminds me of the council that refused the parents of a Royal Marine (if memory serves me) to build a small adapted property on their land for their recently bilaterally amputated son. None of their neightbours objected yet the council still refused.

[daisya]

Can't help but cry to read the plight of the poor children, orphans at such young ages how cruel life is. It's a pity there aren't compassionate people about within the authority bodies who have a say in handling this sort of thing. I guess there's laws etc to govern all this but surely common sense and a helping hand is what's needed when someone is kind enough to want to do this?

[Philtaz]

http://www.dailymail....marine-lost-legs.html
Apologies if that derails your thread slightly AOG.

[rockyracoon]

For Gods sake, how much would it cost social services to put those poor children in foster care, a lot more than helping this woman I'd imagine. Shame on those jobsworths.

[d9f1c7]

I'm suprised they haven't legally banned her from adopting the kids on the grounds her BMI isn't perfect or some such rubbish. Local authority jobsworths will be first against the wall come the revolution, power to the people!

[ummmm]

I think it's a lovely thing to do, and she should be admired.

She can't expect an extension for it though.

[eyethenkyew]

No doubt the massive amounts of child benefit and other hand outs helped the decision-making process?

[craft1948]

eyethenkyou that is a terrible thing to say.........child benefits are certainly not going to help the children get decent bedrooms.

[Mamyalynne]

What a cynical comment ETY, a truly remarkable lady, hope she gets sorted for all the family's sake.

[ummmm]

Child benefit is NOT a hand out.

New Judge explained it...

[Old_Geezer]

Good for her.

Regarding the extension though, without seeing the details it is difficult to judge, but one might think that it would be a better solution to move into larger accomodation than modify the existing house. Maybe that was what the council was thinking when they suggested selling up and moving into council accommodation ? After all, paying for an extension is likely to end up becoming her private property.

Still one would have thought some solution could be found.They are clearly overcrowded where they are.

[Old_Geezer]

Child benefit is most certainly a hand out. It is money given to help pay the expenses of folk who opt to have offspring. I can understand one may feel a need to be compassionate for the first child as one has only one life (as far as we know) in which to ensure our genes go into the next generation, but I see no reason for child benefit beyond that. Indeed anyone in receipt of child benefit who opt to have another child must be able to afford them for themselves and don't need the payments for the first either.

[IggyB]

A nice lady certainly but if your family suddenly gets much bigger then you probably have to move house. It may seem harsh but financial support is a safety net and shouldn't be given when other options are available.

Hope she finds somewhere more suitable - or that the nice people from diy SOS come round and build the extension for her