THE only good thing to come out of the shocking case of child killer and professional scrounger, Mick Philpott, is that it has thrown into sharp focus this country’s benefits system or rather the way it is freely abused.
It is supposed to be there to help those who, through no fault of their own, have fallen on hard times and are finding it difficult to feed body and soul and keep a roof over their heads.
But the way Philpott – who had not done a proper day’s work since 2003 – manipulated it, enabled him to put sums estimated at between £60,000 and £100,000 a year into his bank account. That is much more than double the average earnings in this country.
While many of the unemployed have been following Norman Tebbit’s advice “to get on their bikes and look for work”, Philpott’s main activity seemed to be fathering children and pocketing the allowances paid to his wife and live-in mistress, which from all accounts they meekly handed over to him.
Some way must be found to stop similar abuses of the welfare system without jeopardising payments made to the vast majority of claimants who are honest and deserving of help.
I think Derby City Council is right in planning to demolish the house in which Philpott lived.
It follows the example of the London council which pulled down 10 Rillington Place, where John Reginald Christie committed his ghoulish murders some years ago.
There is always a risk that such houses could become some kind of shrine for unbalanced people who admire those who commit evil crimes.
THE need to get the spending of taxpayers’ money under control is illustrated by the disclosure that the NHS is paying trainee doctors up to £2,000 a day to cover shifts at understaffed hospitals, equivalent to an annual salary of £700,000.
Nice work if you can get it.
Incidentally, the compensation culture shows no sign of abating.
A fireman who hurt his hand on a locker has won a £250,000 payout, while another was compensated after catching his fingers in a vacuum cleaner.
The police service has also paid out large sums to its members, with more than £67 million claimed by 8,000 officers in the past four years, with one who was injured by handcuffs on a safety course receiving £108,000.
Once, we blamed such mishaps on our own clumsiness.
Nowadays, we assume someone else is responsible and we want recompense.
Wives had better look out. If they ask hubby to do some domestic chore and it goes wrong, a solicitor’s letter may be on the way!