Polygamous husbands settling in Britain with multiple wives can claim extra benefits for their "harems" even though bigamy is a crime in the UK, it has emerged.Opposition MPs are demanding an urgent change in the law, claiming that the Government is recognising and rewarding a custom which has no legal status and which is "alien" to this country's cultural traditions.
Officials said yesterday a review was now under way into whether the state should continue to pay out income support, jobseeker's allowance and housing and council tax benefits to 'extra' spouses.
Islamic law allows a man to take up to four wives, providing he can provide for them fairly and equally. But British law only ever recognises one spouse, while bigamy is punishable by up to seven years in jail.
However, if a husband and his wives arrive and settle in Britain having wed in a country where polygamy is legal, then the UK benefits system recognises his extra wives as dependents and pays them accordingly.
The Department of Work and Pensions admitted yesterday it had no figures on how many families are claiming for multiple wives.
A DWP official insisted the rules did not "reward" polygamy, as second wives receive less in benefits than single women. A single person can claim just under £60 per week in jobseeker's allowance, while couples receive up to £92.80, but each 'additional spouse' in a polygamous marriage receives an extra £33.65.
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coming to Canada soon......
Posted by: aj in calgary at April 19, 2007 2:32 PMthere will always be an england, not
Posted by: jmorrison at April 19, 2007 2:33 PMRemember the pagan symbols on Uncle Mo's Ark of Hope?
Everything seems to be falling into place. He must be very pleased with the progress.
There are several contradictions.
First, of course, is that the UK law does not allow polygamy. Period. Therefore, how can there be a 'standard amount' of33.65 per 'extra spouse'?
By the way, that's about $76.00CAD per week. And that's just 'jobseeker's allowance'; I doubt if the esteemed extra lady is seeking a job. So, that's an extra $300 per month that she is bringing in. Tax free but paid by others who ARE working. Plus - how much in housing and other benefits?
I'd guess that they are, as a whole, living extremely well.
If the Islamic law, which is not valid in the UK, states that a Muslim may have up to four wives, providing he can support them, then, how can he ask the taxpayer to support them, instead of himself?
This is what we have brought on ourselves, with our welfare statism coupled with the stupidity of multiculturalism.
Posted by: ET at April 19, 2007 2:45 PMWith this article in mind, why are the media making an issue out of Mitt Romney's religious beliefs and his 'non-polygamy'?
Posted by: itlog95 at April 19, 2007 2:51 PMIt may already be here....
I dont know whether polygamy should be a criminal offence or not, I honestly dont. But I certainly dont think it should be legally recognized. The point is the law recognizes one spouse, and thats it, all benefits inheritance rights etc flow to the one spouse. All other members of the harem can decide at that point if they wish to stay.
There is no reason for the government to recognize the practice, especially when there is preliminary evidence that polygamy is problematic for the spouses and the children.
Amazingly ridiculous. How it even got to that stage is beyond me.
Posted by: Stephen at April 19, 2007 3:18 PMIn Canada this will become a spousal equality issue for the Supreme Court party.
Polygamists before the Supremes on equality of "Rights" -
Whoopee!
I think it was Milton Friedman who suggested that:
"WELFARE STATE + (uncontrolled) IMMIGRATION = BANKRUPTCY"
"Islamic law allows a man to take up to four wives, providing he can provide for them fairly and equally."
Doesn't Islamic law then prevent these men from collecting the welfare cheques? Because they are not "providing" for them. The state is.
Islamic hypocrisy.
Posted by: Reid at April 19, 2007 4:26 PMIf there are four wives and all they do is breed then England will become a Muslim state within decades. Thanks Tony, thanks for stabbing every white Christian in the back. You must really hate what you came from.
Posted by: Real conservative at April 19, 2007 4:33 PMThe real question is not how many wives these immigrants have but why they're allowed to come into the country and immediately start sponging off the taxpayer.
If they aren't contributing to the UK they should be elsewhere (home - not here in Canada. We have enough deadbeats as it is.)
I'd rather have a productive person working hard to support his 4 wives than a deadbeat with one wife sucking off the dole.
Posted by: Warwick at April 19, 2007 4:53 PMBritain is an example of a Country losing the principles upon which it reached the point of "Greatness".
Don't bother to be smug, we are heading down the same path.
Every dreg in the world who sets foot on our soil has the same "Rights" under our frigging Charter as those of us who are born here and contributed. Add to that our Multicultural Bill and you have a toxic mix foe inevitable disaster.
Posted by: Liz J at April 19, 2007 4:55 PMI would think this already exists in Canada, and is very easy to get away with.
Legally married Husband & Wife#1 with children collect welfare benefits as a married couple with children. Wife #2 with children who isn't legally recognized as a Wife 'rents a room' in the home H&W #1 and collects welfare benefits. Wife#3...and so on.
Posted by: JM at April 19, 2007 5:05 PMI need a drink.
Posted by: Ross at April 19, 2007 6:06 PMFollowing this multi-culti sensitivity for all human conditions to its logical conclusion, what happens when the first legitimate religious cannibal or human sacrificer demands monetary assistance? Hard times can happen to anyone.
If the Brits are going to save themselves, they need to do it by tomorrow morning. They haven't got a second to spare.
Posted by: penny at April 19, 2007 6:48 PMSo if I show up with my 8 year old "bride" that I LEGALLY MARRIED in a muslim country not only will I NOT be arrested as a pedophile I will in fact be able to claim gov't support ?
Posted by: tom at April 19, 2007 7:11 PMTom:
Why not? We have freedom of Religion, that means any religion. If the religion says you can marry whatever that religion allows you've got the blessings of the Land and all the benefits therein.
The Brits are in one sad mess for which there is no quick fix. It didn't happen overnight, there were warnings but the creeping into the quagmire continued and now it's a major problem.
This thing called "Dole" and sponging off the working poor has got to end if we are to survive as a society.
It's sickening to listen to the Dippers in the HOC yelling about things like childhood poverty and various social programs while offering no way to fund them.
In fact they hate Big Business who employ people so they can fend for themselves, pay taxes and contribute to society.
So, some people might be able to understand the can of worms, Pandora's Box we've opened in Canada by legally sanctioning same-sex marriage, on the grounds that this self-expression, quite against 2000 plus years of Western tradition and practice, is a right.
If SSM is a LEGAL right in Canada--based on self- referential choice--on what grounds CAN we deny polygamists THEIR freedom of choice?
Traditional family advocates recognized this abyss three decades ago. Do people give them credit? Not a chance: these advocates for the traditional--natural, eco-model, I might suggest--one-man, one-woman family who are focused, as no other two people can be, on their children, have been marginalized and laughed around the block.
The sanction of SSM--a new, self-referential choice, quite outside our tradition and practice--has paved the way for all kinds of other configurations.
Polygamy, as a "marriage" choice, is standing in the wings, ready to take centre stage. It's sort of like the movie, "While You Were Sleeping". The "You" is the Western, post-Christian culture and all its camp followers.
I'd be scared.
Posted by: lookout at April 19, 2007 8:44 PM
You do realize, I presume, that the problem here is not the existence of Islam, or the practice of polygamy, but the inherently stupid and destructive socialist welfare state?
For every rascally Middle Easterner filling council flats with multiple brides and umpteen kids I can assure you there is a plain, old, white bread regular citizen who has knocked up multiple welfare queens, every one of whose brats and/or abortions has been paid for by someone else.
Posted by: Justzumgai at April 19, 2007 11:55 PM"If SSM is a LEGAL right in Canada--based on self- referential choice--on what grounds CAN we deny polygamists THEIR freedom of choice?"
"Polygamy, as a 'marriage' choice, is standing in the wings, ready to take centre stage."
Yes, indeedy.
Once "marriage" no longer has any societal definition to it - and becomes whatever people want it to be - anything is permissible.
Posted by: JJM at April 20, 2007 10:00 AMReminds me of a joke where a arab kid gose to his father and asks a queation the father says IM BUSY SON GO ASK ONE OF YOUR MOTHERS
Posted by: spurwing plover at April 20, 2007 10:04 AMJust more of the same passive jihad. These people have no respect for anything un-Islamic. They will continue to manipulate our laws and culture as long as they are allowed. They fundamentally believe that their culture trumps all others, therefore, we, the lesser beings, must pay them their jizya, one way or another.
There are Imams who preach not to pay taxes to the (temporarily) infidel country where Muslims might reside.
Until everybody in the west finally understands the Islamic mind (kitman and taqiyya), and until multi-culturalism and the insane idea of cultural equivalency are destroyed, the west deserves no respect.
Posted by: irwin daisy at April 20, 2007 10:59 AMin Canada we keep our welfare recipients busy
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/04/20/native-blockade.html
...the Muslim mess reminds me of tearing down an old house with rotten timbers.
You break one of the beams or boards and the cockroaches and termites scramble all over the place and now you have more of a mess on your hands trying to control these critters than if you had left that old house alone to implode on itself.
Posted by: tomax7 at April 20, 2007 11:46 AMA Compass Poll/Survey as recently as February 2, 2005, reported that about a third of the Canadian public believes that same-sex marriage will hasten the arrival of plural marriage.
Around one in eight favours polygamy for Canada.
Meanwhile support for gay marriage tends to be stronger among those who "define themselves as non-religious, report having had five or more sexual partners, attend liberal rather than traditional congregations, and *belong to the small minority who favour polygamy*."
See:
http://opine-editorials.blogspot.com/2007/04/polygamy-in-uk.html
Yeah those eco-freaks made that stupid ark of hope i mockery of the ark of the covenent its too bad the boat carrying that offensive peice of pagan trash dont sink in the deepist part of the pacific
Posted by: spurwing plover at April 21, 2007 5:46 PM