This family of seven gets £1,900 a month in welfare – and could get a £10,000 a year more if the two-child cap is lifted… so how should we balance their needs with the rights of hard working taxpayers?

No one is likely to confuse Lisa and David White’s home with a child-proof zone. Even without the laughter and endless chatter coming from inside, the bicycles scattered on the grass would have been a gift.

Behind the front door of their four-bedroom property in Monmouth, South Wales, the hallway looks like a maze of teenage coats and trainers. Given that all five children were born within seven years of each other and now range in age from three to ten, it is perhaps unsurprising that Mrs White describes their lives as ‘very, very busy’.

But he says starting work at 6 a.m. every day is less of a problem than financial pressure.

None of the whites (though they are not married, they share the same surname after Lisa changes hers by deed poll) are working. Indeed, there has been no one earning a living at home for the last three years. Their domestic budget comes entirely from the public purse and they are among around 200,000 large families who will receive thousands of pounds more in state benefits, with the two-child benefit cap widely expected to be scrapped.

It comes after Chancellor Rachel Reeves thought it was not right that children should be “punished” for being in larger families “through no fault of their own”.

His comments are seen as confirmation that the two-child limit introduced by Conservative Chancellor George Osborne in 2017 will be removed in the Budget on 26 November; This is a jab at the Left by the increasingly embattled Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

As it stands, White people receive benefit payments of £1,935 per month.

This amount exceeds the standard child benefit limit of £1,835 per month (or £22,020 per year) because David is also entitled to disability benefit (Limited Capacity for Work and Work-Related Activity payment), which means the normal rules do not apply.

Mrs. White and her children. The family’s domestic budget comes entirely from the state budget and they are among around 200,000 large families who will receive thousands of pounds more in state benefits, with the two-child benefit cap widely expected to be scrapped.

What’s more, monthly rents of £560 for a housing association property in a quiet development are also covered.

Taken together, the Whites’ annual cost to the state is £29,940.

For comparison, the average salary in the UK is around £37,000; This would leave an income of £30,159 after tax and National Insurance; this figure will be even lower when the rent or mortgage is paid.

Meanwhile, a person earning the National Living Wage (£12.21 per hour for those 21 and under) would earn £23,809 a year for a standard 37.5-hour working week.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Lisa, 31, insists having a large family ‘wasn’t something I always planned’.

She says: ‘I actually said when I was younger that I would only have three children and that I wouldn’t be able to have children before I was 30.’

But after starting a relationship with David, now 35 (their grandmothers had been best friends since childhood), she gave birth to her first child, Layla, at 21. Layla is now ten years old. Four more children – Marley, nine, Arlo, six, Bonnie, four, and three-year-old Teddie – swelled the family ranks in the following years.

Neither Mrs. White nor her husband works. Indeed, there has been no one earning a living at home for the last three years.

Families like Whites with five children could be up to £10,000 a year better off with the expected removal of the two-child allowance limit

Their situation changed when David was badly affected by the Covid-related deaths he witnessed while working as a home carer and activity coordinator for people with dementia.

At the time he was earning £456 a week – working 48 hours for the then minimum wage of £9.50 – but his household income had been boosted by working tax credits and standard child benefit.

‘He had a bit of a mental health crisis and was no longer able to work,’ says Lisa. ‘He continued as long as he could… until 2022. I was already pregnant with our fifth child when she had to leave work. “It was a really difficult time for us.”

Life has been ‘very different’ since then. With a weekly shopping bill of £200 to £250 (including nappies for the youngest two children), monthly energy charges of around £250 and the cost of running a 2009 registered Vauxhall Zafira, he says his welfare income of almost £2,000 a month ‘doesn’t go very far’.

But he insists: ‘I think there’s a misunderstanding because everyone who looks after me and my five children says: ‘Obviously he’s doing this for his own benefit.’

‘But we made the decision to have five children when our financial situation was completely different and we weren’t relying solely on welfare to look after the children. Dave was working and we thought we’d be fine.

‘But you can’t tell the future. We decided to get Bonnie and then Teddie based on the same idea. It suddenly changed. Now we need to work with what we have.’

Ms White, who worked in the same care home as her husband before giving birth to her first child, emphasized that she always planned to return to full-time work after her children went to school. However, she explains that this is no longer a viable option as one of the children only attends school part-time. Meanwhile, Dave says he ‘can’t take care of the kids on his own.’

Speaking about the impact of removing the headgear on her family, Ms White told the Daily Mail: ‘It will definitely make a difference to the children. I could cure them if I wanted. ‘I could take them out for days.’

‘I would love to be able to go to work, but there is a social assistance system for those who cannot. That would be impossible for me.’

She continues: ‘I’m sure there are mothers out there who would love to stay home with their kids and watch them grow up and do everything I do.

‘I’m grateful for what I can do and I love being at home with the kids. But I would also love to be able to go and work and have some time for myself. It would be nice to have my own identity too.’

Asked about working families who might feel frustrated or resentful about raising a family entirely on taxpayers’ money, Ms. White replies: ‘I’ve been in that situation myself.

‘I was in the lucky position of being able to stay at home while Dave was working. I would look at families and wonder ‘how do they manage when none of them work?’ I thought. It was hard for me to see other children getting free school meals and my children not. I would have to scramble to pack their lunch boxes.

‘But you can sympathize with these people when you’re in the same situation.’ He adds: ‘I know so many people who are working but still struggling. The cost of living crisis has put everyone in a difficult situation. There are things we miss out on because Dave can’t work and I can’t work.’

On whether his partner will return to the workforce, he says: ‘I really hope so. He doesn’t want to stay at home, he wants to go back. He has always worked since he was 16 years old. It is very difficult for him to have to stop. ‘He had a lot of guilt about it.’

Meanwhile, Mrs. White insists that she keep the purse strings tight.

Ms White, who worked in the same care home as her partner before giving birth to her first child, insisted she had always planned to return to full-time work once the children were in school. But this is no longer a valid option

Neither Lisa nor David smokes or drinks; Meanwhile, she dyes her hair at home and hasn’t been to the hairdresser since she was pregnant with her middle child.

Daily shopping is done at affordable retailer Lidl.

Their first family holiday was a £58 off-season five-day break in a self-catering chalet at Butlin’s in Minehead, Somerset, earlier this year. The only waste in their family home is a 60-inch television set purchased on rent.

With the expected removal of the two-child allowance limit, families like Whites with five children could be up to £10,000 a year better off.

The Treasury had prepared plans to ‘reduce’ the limit and reduce available benefits as the number of children increased. But under pressure from restless backbenchers who also scuppered plans to cut welfare spending in the summer, Labor is now preparing to scrap the cap entirely at a cost of £3.5bn a year.

Former Labor prime minister Gordon Brown, who served as chancellor for a decade, was among the most vocal campaigners in favor of removing the border. Currently, Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit payments, which are both means-tested, are limited to the first two children, typically costing families £3,455 in missed benefits for each subsequent child.

Normal child benefit is not affected by this. Figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show around 470,000 families are affected by the policy. Of these, almost two-thirds (297,000) have three children, while a quarter (117,000) have four children. Another 37,000 families have five children and 18,260 families are reported to have ‘six or more’.

Speaking about the impact of removing the hat on her family, Ms White told the Daily Mail: ‘It will definitely make a difference to the children. I could cure them if I wanted. ‘I could take them out for days.’

When asked if she thinks her children live in poverty, she responds: ‘It depends on what you classify as poverty, but I don’t think of my children that way. We have a roof over our heads, we have gas and electricity, and I can go food shopping every week.

‘But if being above the poverty line means you can buy new clothes and shoes for your kids whenever you want, then maybe we fit into that category too. I need to buy them second hand. My definition of poverty is being homeless without gas, electricity or food. My children are warm and well-fed.’

But as public finances come under huge pressure, and with government data showing a sevenfold increase in the number of people assessed as long-term ill, with many claiming to have mental or behavioral disorders, there are inevitable concerns that the benefits system is being seen as a bottomless pit.

Although Ms White does not believe forces have an ‘obligation’ to help, she adds: ‘It’s really nice that support is available for families who need it.

‘At the end of the day, children don’t choose to be here; It’s us as parents who make that decision.’

So are these parental decisions contributing to the immense pressure the country is under?

‘When we look at the whole situation, we contribute to it’ [pressure]’ he confesses.

‘But that’s the smallest part of the picture. I’m sure there are many more than just us seven people contributing to this.’