Are the Philpotts the product of the British welfare system?

The day after Britain told the world we are still a nation so obsessed with class and the class system we actually made up new classes, four more to be precise, one more than the original upper, middle and working class of yesteryears to catalogue and include everybody. Shocked? Don’t know about you but I still don’t understand their importance, when every politician keeps telling us we don’t do class in the UK. I do wish we can decide which way we want to go, but I digress. Today I find myself wondering if Mick Philpott and his family (whatever class they are) is the product of our welfare system.

Former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe said his lifestyle was fuelled by the benefit system which encouraged him to have children for the money they generated. Yesterday, The Daily Mail’s headline read “Vile Product of Welfare UK”. But is Mick Philpott a product of the Welfare System or an opportunist and a heartless criminal who saw a loophole and exploited it. Similar to business owners who pass holiday trips as business overnight stays, or bankers who give themselves bounces to subsidise salary cuts or MPs who claim for raunchy videos on expenses , or, or ….., all the people who abuse legal loopholes and weaknesses in all systems to make/save an extra buck here and there. Because our welfare system has more people who don’t abuse it than do. So, is it fair to tar them all with one Philpott?

It seems we are blaming the system, but forgetting that it never specified or capped the number of children a parent is allowed to claim for. Nor did it restrict what types of children (legitimate or otherwise) qualify. So then, if Mick Philpott saw an opportunity to legally obtain money for doing nothing than breeding kids. Isn’t it the job of the system and its legislators to close those gaps and put in place the appropriate measures that stops it being abused?

Particularly since Philpott and his ways were known for many years, to the police, the council and social services, who all did and said nothing until he burned his own kids!

I am positive he is not the only one out there who clocked on (in the old benefits system) more kids equal more dough. Under the current benefit cap and the recent reforms many “Philpotts” will face a lifestyle change and not to the better. My concern is what’s going to happen to the children? What types of abuse will they face and are the local authorities and the law aware of whom and where they are, and are they prepared to protect them?