Pakistan-born Baroness’ Shreela Flather says in her brazen claim that South Asian, largely Pakistani and Bangladeshi, families are deliberately having more children in order to claim extra welfare benefits from the government. Under the current UK Government regulations, every family — regardless of income — is entitled to an annual cash allowance of £1,055 for the first child and £500 for every child thereafter.
LONDON – An Asian community leader in the UK has attracted mixed reactions to her claim that some South Asian families are deliberately having more children in order to claim extra welfare benefits from the government. Under the current UK Government regulations, every family — regardless of income — is entitled to an annual cash allowance of £1,055 for the first child and £500 for every child thereafter.
Parents with 10-children families may typically claim a minimum allowance of more than Rs 5 lakh a year, regardless of whether the husband and wife are employed.
Lahore-born Baroness Shreela Flather, the first Asian woman to receive a peerage, told fellow members of the House of Lords, that South Asian families in their home countries were used to having a large number of children because they represented a safety net in their old age.
But in a controversial twist to her argument, she focused on the Pakistanis and Bangladeshis settled in the UK, saying: “The minority communities in this country, particularly the Pakistanis and the Bangladeshis, have a very large number of children and the attraction is the large number of benefits that follow the child.
“Nobody likes to accept that, nobody likes to talk about it because it is supposed to be very politically incorrect.”
She added, “In their countries of origin, of course, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis and even Indians have large families because there is no safety net. When you get old, it is only your children who are going to look after you. This doesn’t apply here — every old person does have their pension and they will be looked after.”
A spokesman for the UK Pakistani Forum supported Lady Flather, commenting: “I would agree with that. They are making more children. When parents are unemployed, they have nothing else to do. It’s a form of entertainment. They spend more time at home, they don’t go out, they don’t have money for holidays. It’s the only form of entertainment they enjoy.”
But a spokesman for the Bangladesh Centre in London said he disagreed and described Flather’s analysis as “stingy”. The Centre spokesman told the Tribune, “If God chose you to have 10 children or five children, that’s it. Some parents pray to God for a son or daughter. She should think in another way, not this stingy way.”
Commenting on Flather’s assertion that parents with larger families were claiming more benefits from the government, he responded, “Yes, if you have 10 children, you will get more benefits. But when your children grow up and get jobs, they will contribute ( to society) more as well.”
Flather, who spoke out in the House of Lords during the second reading of the Welfare Reform Bill, added: “It is about time we stopped using children as a means of improving the amount of money we receive or getting a bigger house.
“I really feel that for the first two children there should be a full raft of benefits, for the third child three quarters and for the fourth child a half.”
