Forum Topic

The family from Afghanistan still in Acton mansion at our expense

According to the Daily Mail today this Council is STILL throwing £12,458 of our hard-earned cash away every month to keep just one Afghan family in luxury in the 7 bedroomed Acton mansion - despite it being more than a year since this was first brought to tax-payers' attention. The mother's seven children STILL enjoy the luxury of a bedroom each, at our expense, whilst many of us are stuck permanently in over-crowded accommodation - and there isn't a hope in hell of our own kids doing nearly so well out of our hard work as they are being left with the legacy of debt and shortage of affordable housing we are leaving them to inherit. The Afghan lady's 21 year old, business student son owns an almost new Mini Cooper!!! How is this odone on benefits??!! No doubt he gets all his student tuition free too and a grant to live on while our kids just get more debt! This one family scoops a whopping £170,000 IN BENEFITS EVERY YEAR! How can ordinary people be being asked to stump up to pay for things for people who've never paid a penny into the system when we couldn't even hope to afford these things for ourselves and our own families? This frustrating waste of our money is on top of the same Council's arrogant and wasteful throwing of thousands, if not millions, of pounds of OUR council-tax in CRAZY £50 rebates AT PEOPLE WHO DON'T EVEN PAY COUNCIL TAX and wasting a further million ignoring advice and risking more of our money in a collapsed Icelandic bank. Is this really all our out-of-touch local politicians think us tax-payers are good for?

John Simms ● 5635d30 Comments

Re  In time the mother will be forced to work in the absence disabilities.          xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx      Maybe, but what was the outcome of the Inland Revenue? raiding the place and carting off documents. Something untoward going on, or suspected.

Tony Price ● 5626d

Re  and that's why they  sacked the three agency staff.            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx            yes, because I think there was something " strange " re the circs of the rental?, which I assume was for 12 mths at the most, so why the family are still there does warrant some explanation. I am not trying to exonerate Ealing Council but lay the blame on this Govt. which above all others has favoured immigrants. That's why they are getting the wind up re the rise of the BNP who unearth and publicise the preferential treatment to persons not of this country.

Tony Price ● 5626d

Unless you know the precise nature of the current legal tenure which enables the family to occupy this house, you cannot complain about the Council allowing this situation to continue - and hope to see a change. Details of their tenure are unlikely to be made available. All you can do is complain about the maladministration in the first instance which allowed the situation to arise. So your second point is not valid unless you have legal proof. However I do not dispute your opinion. That is because there will be other even larger families, either British or from overseas who should have been put into this house rather than breaking up a family.In time the mother will be forced to work in the absence disabilities.

George Knox ● 5626d

'..it's not really the fault of this Council'Tony, I think you are letting Ealing Council too easily off the hook here!  They are responsible for administrating the scheme.  There are no rules from central government saying that councils must put asylum seekers in properties where they have a bedroom each.  There are no rules that say councils must ignore cheaper properties in the same road and go for the dearest, most extravagant, most luxurious one they can find. If you disagree then please reveal the relevant rules to me here.Ealing Council IS culpable for this scandal in the first place and Ealing Council IS reponsible for letting it continue for well over a year since it was pointed out. They know that's true - and that's why they  sacked the three agency staff.

John Simms ● 5626d

With incidents such as this, and this is not the only occasion when it seems this covernment as gone mad  and passed caring that foreign nationals can enter this country and get more money & benifits than a citizen born and bred here.  I realize there are many deserving cases that enter this country and are welcomed-but in this case some major adjustments should be made-JJ

John Jones ● 5627d

Re  I agree that it's ridiculous that the Tory council is still keeping this family in a mansion           xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx      Liz, it's not really the fault of this Council but the arrangement foisted on all Councils all over the country  by this Govt. Why they are dragging their feet correcting the absurd situation they devised I cannot understand. This family are not an isolated case and if Darling wants to save money, he need look no further than situations such as this, but I don't think this Govt. are serious in cutting back on immigration. That this family have allegedly said no-one will shift them gives us the flavour of their attitude towards us. Two fingers up, it seems.  What with that and the backing of the Govt. what chance do we have other than pay up and shut up.

Tony Price ● 5627d

I agree that it's ridiculous that the Tory council is still keeping this family in a mansion, but it's worth remembering that the last Labour council wasted £250,000 of Ealing's cashg on suing the Audit Commission and losing. The Labour council sued because Audit Commission had dared to (quite rightly!) criticise the their services.Personally, I'd prefer a Liberal democrat council, but the Tories are not the worst council we could have!

Liz Haas ● 5627d

Robin Taylor you have got that right sir.

ajit singh ● 5630d

Re  gratefull for a country to take them in-what a difference it is today-JJ                 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    exactly, and what is happening, ie outright encouragement by our own govt. to entice them here, make us pay for being dislodged from our own environments, made to keep quiet about it or face prosecution all adds up a) to treason  and b) some ulterior reason that is being kept from us.

Tony Price ● 5631d

I have never been agaist immigration provided it was controlled and the reason for coming here was genuine-I am old enough to have come up against immigrants before some of you were born-I lived in the east end of London near the docks where it was practicaly impossible not to live or be near a foreigner-mainly German jews escaping the rule of Nazi Germany or Italian's fed up with the fascist rule of Mussolini-no hand out's from the social security and gratefull for a country to take them in-what a difference it is today-JJ

John Jones ● 5631d

So I take it your in Favour Robin???

Andy Wright ● 5631d

Let's all spend our Sunday afternoon having a good moan about Afghan immigrants.

Robin Taylor ● 5631d

The solution is a very simple one.  All those in favour of mass immigration,assylum seekers ( bogus or not )ect ect should lobby the government for their own tax code....and let them pay for it.Come the end of the month when they see their payslips I wonder how many people will still be in favour???

Andy Wright ● 5631d

Re  most people wonder why people feel bitter about the immigration policy-JJ            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    John, a truly revealing post, and 25p per week and to think we , yes WE pay persons like that Afghan woman the gross equivalent of £300,000 a year or more for having done and doing nothing, beggars belief. But I disagree with you re the above excerpt from your post, I think the word  most  is in the wrong place  and should read  people wonder why most people feel bitter about the immigration policy. 80% of the overall population I think poll  that way. Give asylum to TRUE seekers of course, but they are such a small minority, 2.5% according to one charity of genuine seekers. Even Jack Straw said a few years ago 80% were bogus. An Iraqi friend told me  this country is stupid in what we give to immigrants /  asylum seekers,he doesn't blame them but the system. There must be a hidden agenda behind it all. We now know NL did it to upset the community cohesion and rattle the rightwing parties , which in my book is treason for which they should be strung up from the lamposts. But there surely must be a hidden reason as no sane Govt. would wreck the havoc on a country as is happening to ours. We hear all the claptrap re the NHS being saved by immigrants. Cobblers, last week I had to go to Ealing Hospital for blood samples, which entailed a long walk through what seemed a good part of the place and I can assure you I was one of the very few Europeans I saw who were  probably no more than 2-3% of those in the place.

Tony Price ● 5631d

I dont blame the Afgan students for coming here-but when is this government going to realise we cannot keep on supporting them and or any other immigrant to this country-this was a rich country but now we are up to our neck in debt,shortage of housing, NS stretched to its limit, our schools are at bursting point and you wonder why the BMP are gaining popularity in this country-I am a pensioner and when I reached 80 the government increased my pension by 25p a week-a damned insult I had to work hard from the age of 16 till I was 70-saved my money, paid for a works pension and yet these immigrants are receiving more money that I am free of charge-and most people wonder why people feel bitter about the immigration policy-JJ

John Jones ● 5631d

Re  the BNP must have the most sweet-smelling, polite people supporting it.                xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx      what the supplicants to supposed asylum seekers/immigrants fail to realise is they play straight into the hands of the BNP cos the British public just do not want to see their country given away, as it has been and continues to be. The supplicants scream racism etc etc and otherwise jump up and down when abuses such as the one in question here are publicised. Just look at the immediate post made after JS did his original one.      As to NL cutting down on immigration, a sop to the voters but with no actual intent of so doing ( immigration is higher this year than last), when I was in my Bank last Monday sat reading a paper, 3 males came and sat also, talking amongst themselves. After a while I asked where they come from, initial answer was Germany so I said you don't look German. Have you ever heard of Afghanistan one asked!. Yes I said, our troops are there fighting for democracy.  They are Afghans  so I asked why have they come to England. Because your human rights are better than any where else they said. What do you mean, our human rights I asked thinking they could be gay or something. Your Govt.gives us everything, right down to toothpaste, razors, everything we need / want, we lack for nothing. Transpires they are at college learning English and aged 17, younger than they look. So presumably they have bank accounts as well. Nice people they were, we had conversation re various aspects in Afghanistan. Apparently one at least was asked to join the Taliban but refused, are in favour of girls being educated, follow the religion but not stoning to death etc. I said I hope they become westernised as Jews have done, having the same religion but been in freer civilisation for long time.

Tony Price ● 5632d

This might be a good time to remind all politicians, wannabe politicians, and their supporters, whether party members or electorate, that this country, like any other, is not theirs to give away.They are merely custodians, often only for a short time. I am quite sure that if we were threatened by an armed invasion of the UK the government, regardless of party, would attempt to repel it.Recently it has been found that present government has been in favour of immigration to unsettle the opposition. What it has found is that defection within its own voters is also significant.If certain remarks made on this forum are true then the BNP must have the most sweet-smelling, polite people supporting it.

Alan Brainsby ● 5632d

Part of the blame must be laid at the door of No 10-it is their idiotic way of adding Acton to the Westminster area where rents are high-the rest of the blame must lie with this council for choosing the easiest way to house this family-there has been time enough for the housing dept to find cheaper accomodation-but they cant be bothered-afterall its not their money they are spending-another point of interest is who paid the transport cost for the woman and all her children to travel to England-she has already stated that she left a far bigger house in Afganistan, and how is her eldest son on benifits or student grants can afford to run a car or is that paid for by the state too- JJ

John Jones ● 5632d

... Great bores of today.

Robin Taylor ● 5632d

Re  DO SOMETHING FOR US AND STOP THIS ABUSE!                xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    this thread which I have only just seen is very interesting in many ways. JS started it off in a perfectly satisfactory way and with a legitimate grouse, and one which I would expect everyone to agree with. But immediately along comes  a protester slagging off JS and the Mail. This particular protester haunts all the Forums in such manner and shows a very anti indig. Brit attitude or anything which can be described as non-left politically. A plant?. But anyway, what JS has brought to the fore is alarming for several reasons. That any legislative body, the supposed highest and most intelligent in the land, the one which sets out to rule us, can not only dream up a scheme whereby anyone can come to this country, in this case from half-way across the world, plonk herself and 7 kids each demanding their own bedroom, by law have to given such a mansion at a cost per month in rent twice the amount a senior citizen gets in one whole year, and has the stupidity to impliment such a cras situation beggars belief. Not that all the blame should fall on NL's shoulders, what were the Tories and Glib Dems doing in allowing it's passage the H o C. Just to fire up any plants even more, in my opinion we owe such persons as this family absolutely nothing and certainly not 2X what we pay even the Prime Minister. If they had to flee Afghanistan, go to a neighbouring country, why come here to a country completely alien in every way. Gross immorality abounds, no-one will convince me otherwise. This Govt. said when this case hit the headlines, thanks I suspect to the D. Mail in Oct 2008 that such an abuse would soon be de-regulated, well it hasn't and the family are  still there and allegedly have boasted no-one will shift them!. As he drove off in his new Mini- Cooper. The situation is so unbelievably absurd you couldn't make it up. Probably what is also getting up the noses of the lefties is there is another similar  case the Mail have unearthed of a family from Somalia living the life of Riley in Westminster at enormous expense to taxpayers ( the family don't work so they are exempt ) and apparently need, and get not one but two houses. And the day the Acton case hit the news  last year, I was told by Ealing Councillors it was NOT an isolated case. So cough up chaps, the lefties want your money to spend on causes dear to their hearts, and it won't be you.

Tony Price ● 5632d

Robin,Whether you like the Daily Mail or not no-one needs to rely on it to realise that the fact that the Afghan family IS still living in the mansion in Acton at our expense is indisputable. I believe we have a right to be made aware when politicians squander our money and frankly don't care whether it's the Daily Mail or any other paper that spills the beans as long as they're spilt. Ignorance is not preferable.I'm glad you work too, I wouldn't be happy having to support you too on top of the £170,000 p.a. in benefits for just one family and the £6.5 million in indiscriminate give-aways to all and sundry. It is not my brain that has been poisoned by vile outpourings but my pocket that is suffering from the vile outpourings forced on it by these reckless councillors.Actually I didn't allege the Afghan family got a £50 cheque from our council leader but I think I could safely say that they did. Neither did I say I condone the bail out to bankers but if this is your beef you start your own thread, don't try to get me to do it for you.I don't think your mindless, knee-jerk reactions to everything you perceive right-wing is helpful or mature. If you have an opinion on this issue then let's hear it then. Don't keep distracting it off the issue of whether it is right that such vast sums of public money should be being spent on just one family so that they can live in luxury whilst thousands other families in this borough are over-crowded with a 12 year wait for social housing? Stick to the point, don't try to muddy the waters by honing in on the bankers or the particular newspaper.

John Simms ● 5633d

You clearly do believe everything you read in the Daily Mail.The reason you started this thread is because you read about the subject matter in the Daily Mail.Therefore, the Daily Mail's chosen agenda is influencing your mind.And please do not accuse me of attempting to "stifle debate" on this issue. I merely have a different opinion on this subject to what you have, and unlike your brain mine hasn't been poisoned by the vile outpourings of the Daily Mail.You make reference to the people in this borough who get up and go to work and pay their taxes. Well I'm one of them, and I'm much more interested in how my hard-earned taxes are being used to bail out greedy Tory-voting bank managers than whether an Afghan family get a few pennies thrown in their direction.The banks don't get "£50 cheques" like you allege the Afghans do - they get paid billions. Why don't you start a thread about that?

Robin Taylor ● 5633d

No Robin, I don't believe everything I read in the Daily Mail but only a fool would dismiss everything just because it was in the Daily Mail!In the end I believe it is the issue that is important and in this case, its existence is corroborated by the lack of its denial by Cllr Phil Taylor. If your remark was intended to discredit my post then it is must also be an attempt to stifle debate around this issue, which is a shame because there are plenty of hard working, honest people in this borough who get up and go to work, pay their taxes, raise their families, care about their communities and really can't afford for their money to be needlessly wasted. It is really not good enough to suffer politicians who deceive us by pretending to act in our interest but are really just acting in their own.What I would like to say to them is that next time they're feeling so affluent and generous with our money to the extent that they're so eager to use it to dole out loads of £50 cheques to people we already subside 100% then let them do so out of their own pockets!! Mine and many others aren't deep enough to fund lavish mansions for others nor bribes for councillors who are just doing it to get themselves re-elected!

John Simms ● 5633d

Phil,Please...spare us...!! You've already publicly blamed, shamed and sacked your own staff for causing this fiasco and physically marched them off your premises!!! Are you really now saying that they were blameless but you made scapegoats of them anyway??  How myopic and gullible do you really perceive us public to be?Your over-determination to squeeze so-called 'efficiency' savings a.k.a. relentless 'cuts' has driven your zealous preference to employ ever greater numbers of temporary and agency staff who lack training, experience and commitment and who are liable to make costly mistakes, as in this case, where they automatically paid this landlord the highest possible rate. So, the fault was LOCAL and your cost-cutting proven, yet again, to be sheer false economy!Your party stood on a 'Value For Money' ticket and yet you've all stood by and let this exploitation of Ealing tax payers continue for a further year. Your 'VFM' credentials are in complete tatters! So, enough excuses! Enough spin! We are more discerning than you give us credit for and can see that you publicly humiliated the agency staff to look like you were going to be tough on this whilst all the while you did absolutely NOTHING to stop it. Accept the blame, assume the responsibility, and instead of misplacing  effort into 'misinforming' us - DO SOMETHING FOR US AND STOP THIS ABUSE!

John Simms ● 5633d

If you refer to the way Housing Benefit will change, then there is a fear of greater homelessness.

George Knox ● 5633d

I believe the law is changing early next year.So all this will be stopped.

Mavis Walker ● 5634d

If the Afghan's gold service had nothing to do with Ealing, how come heads rolled over it?The fact is the whole housing benefits system is in need of reform. It enriches landlords, distorts the market and lowers standards in neighbourhoods when landlords and tenants usually do not care for standards as do owner occupiers.

Graham Weeks ● 5634d

Councillor PhilCan’t say I have ever heard of a Homeless Person Unit putting only one person in one bedroom - where there is a large family. You may tell us exactly where the law insists on that standard of Housing allocation. My belief is that there was a cock up on the part of Ealing. Was it expediency, or inexperience, or preferential treatment?Don’t tell me that for private housing commandeered by the Council for the homeless that one person gets a single room as a matter of course. We can’t afford to see overhousing. Otherwise with the high Ealing immigrant population with large families, we would have many repetitions of the problem complained about by John – would we not?.One wonders if these tenants are still in temporary accommodation or whether they have since been allowed to get a full tenancy. As to your other comments, everyone knows the Home Office has been called not fit for purpose. However, if ever you have produced the perfect case for calling the kettle black your potshot about misuse of taxes is one of your greatest classics.Perhaps you can surprise us by emerging from your habitual propensity to silence.I challenge you to answer in PUBLIC whether the DWP have – already - in writing – unequivocally - confirmed to the Council that both DWP Benefits and Council Tax Benefit claimants will not be affected by this £50 cash back hander. Unequivocally.

George Knox ● 5635d

John,The article is not as clear as it could be.  This is a Labour government scheme, the Local Housing Allowance Scheme, which means that central government cash is being spent on this family.  Ealing Council only has a perpheral role and could not stop this situation the way thew law and the scheme are currently drafted.  If you want to blame someone blame the government that has lost control of immigration and then uses our taxes in such a stupid way.

Phil Taylor ● 5635d

I don't believe what I read in the Daily Mail but I bet similar residents got £50.00 rebate!!

Jean Heaphy ● 5635d

Do you believe everything you read in the Daily Mail?

Robin Taylor ● 5635d