Posted on 02/03/2008 12:30:38 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Husbands living in a "harem" with multiple wives have been cleared to claim state benefits for all their different partners.
A Muslim man with four spouses - which is permitted under Islamic law - could receive £10,000 a year in income support alone.
He could also be entitled to more generous housing and council tax benefit, to reflect the fact his household needs a bigger property.
Ministers have decided that, even though bigamy is a crime in Britain, polygamous marriages can be recognised formally by the state - provided they took place overseas, in countries where they are legal.
The outcome will chiefly benefit Muslim men with more than one wife.
Ministers estimate that up to a thousand polygamous partnerships exist in Britain, although they admit there is no exact record.
Potentially, the benefits bill for income support could reach £10m.
New guidelines on income support from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) state: "Where there is a valid polygamous marriage the claimant and one spouse will be paid the couple rate (£92.80).
"The amount payable for each additional spouse is presently £33.65."
Income support for all of the wives may be paid directly into the husband's bank account, if the family so choose.
Chris Grayling, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said that the decision was "completely unjustifiable".
He added: "You are not allowed to have multiple marriages in the UK, so to have a situation where the benefits system is treating people in different ways is totally unacceptable and will serve to undermine confidence in the system.
"This sets a precedent that will lead to more demands for the culture of other countries to be reflected in UK law and the benefits system."
Mr Grayling also accused the Government of trying to keep the ruling quiet because the topic is so controversial.
Corin Taylor, research director for the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "British taxpayers are paying a record amount of tax so the Government has a duty to make sure that every penny is spent properly.
"Polygamy is not something which British law allows and therefore British taxpayers should not have to pay for extra benefits for second or third wives.
"If other countries sanction polygamy that is fine but the British taxpayer should not have to fund it."
Ministers launched a review of the benefit rules for polygamous marriages in November 2006, after it emerged that some families had benefited financially.
The review concluded in December last year with agreement that the extra benefits should continue to be paid. But the decision was not publicly announced.
Four departments - the Treasury, the DWP, HM Revenue and Customs, and the Home Office - were involved in the review, which concluded that recognising multiple marriages conducted overseas was 'the best possible' option. In Britain, bigamy is punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Islamic law permits men to have up to four wives at any one time - known as a harem - provided the husband spends equal amounts of time and money on each of them.
The DWP believes the number of people in polygamous marriages entering Britain has fallen since the 1988 Immigration Act, which makes it harder to bring more than one wife to the UK.
But, while a married man cannot obtain a spouse visa to bring a second wife into Britain, some multiple partners may be able to enter the country via other legal routes such as tourist visas, student visas or work permits.
Officials have also identified a potential loophole by which a man can divorce his wife under British law while continuing to live with her as his spouse under Islamic law, and obtain a spouse visa for a foreign woman who he can legally marry.
Immigration rules say entry clearance may not be withheld from a second wife where the husband has divorced his previous wife, and the divorce is thought to be one of convenience.
This is so, even if the husband is still living with the previous wife and to issue the entry clearance would lead to the formation of a polygamous household.
Muslim couples are only married in the eyes of the British state if they undergo a register office wedding as well as a Nikah, or religious ceremony.
Muslim groups say it is quite common for men here to undergo more than one Nikah with different wives. This does not count as bigamy since only the first marriage is legally recognised.
A DWP spokesman said: 'There are fewer than 1,000 polygamous marriages in the UK and only a small percentage of these are claiming social security benefit.
"We recently reviewed the rules regarding benefit payments to customers in a polygamous marriage, which conclude that the rules in place since 1987 provide the necessary safeguards to ensure there is no financial advantage for claimants in a valid polygamous marriage."
Left unsaid is what the other options were.
Muslim groups say it is quite common for men here to undergo more than one Nikah with different wives. This does not count as bigamy since only the first marriage is legally recognised.
So the muslims don't even recognize any marriage other than the first, but the Brits do? This is dhimmitude squared.
Husbands living in a “harem” with multiple wives have been cleared to claim state benefits for all their different partners.
A Muslim man with four spouses - which is permitted under Islamic law - could receive £10,000 a year in income support alone.
They have gone absolutely stark, staring, raving mad.
Bye-bye England. :(
Invite into your country an alien, hostile underclass, encourage it to out-breed the natives by subsidizing its polygamous clan structure with taxpayer’s money, muzzle your own people’s protests with “hate crime” and “hate speech” laws that penalize Christianity and protect Islam, sit back and wait for the inevitable civil war, which the invaders will win. The is the treason of the clerks on steroids.
LOL
I was just curious why a man would want FOUR wives? I've always been under the impression that most think ONE wife is More than enough!
Of course for muslims it's different...wives are property, not partners!
Lots of potential for statistical mischief. If only three people are in each marriage, this means 3,000 people.
Here we pay unemployed people who have been on welfare their entire lives more money for each baby they have. This makes just as much sense. Of course this British plan comes with a great big step towards sharia law which brings ever more benefits to the women. Soon they won’t even be allowed to work, go outside, vote, drive, or nearly anything else.
Female circumcision should go over especially well in the enlightened British society.
bump
Churchhill is rolling over in his grave! And Margaret Thatcher probably needs to be hospitalized after reading this!
I used to believe that “Eurabia” was all about guaranteeing access to oil. It also seemed possible that the EU elites wanted a huge body of young men who could be relied upon as myrmidons, in case the EU populaces ever got ideas about taking back their countries (moslems never having shown much disinclination for killing nonmoslems.)It even occurred to me that maybe the EU elites have ideas about encouraging the spread of islam throughout the EU in case antiamericanism and environmentalism aren’t enough for EU cohesiveness. I think now that the answer as to why elites are so enamored with islam is easy to discern : Look at moslem countries: A huge corpus of semislaves with not only few rights, but no desire for rights, because all their misery is “Allah’s will”. Near slaves who never try to overthrow their elites, so long as those elites don’t openly despise islam or the koran-and the elites are perfectly free to do what they will behind palace walls, or when they jet off to the west. Peasants who live at the subsistence level, relying on ancient “technology”, thereby having minimal impact on Holy Gaia-in short, however horrific islamic countries are to us, to left/liberal elites, they are paradise and precisely what they’d like to impose on us : A world where THEY live in luxury while 99% of the population is semi literate and semi starving. Remember when George Soros made that remark at yet another Global Warming Summit, about saving the earth by destroying the western economies?
Where are the rough brave Britons to be found With Hearts of Oak, so much of old renowned?
Mrs. Susannah Centlivre
“The Cruel Gift”
Well, if the stealer of tax money is going to give you some other peoples money to sleep with four different women, good work if you can get it! (stupid is as stupid does)Who says you have to stick around much?
Yeah, that’s ok...just don’t call them “mum or dad” or they’ll drag you to jail.
Aid for Families With Dependent Children (AFDC aka Welfare)is technically limited to five years in the United States. As a career counselor and supervisor at two different state (Iowa and Texas) workforce centers, I saw thousands of these “clients” in my 15+ years. Most had more worldly goods and money than I did. Also, they could quote you chapter and verse from the laws and rules wich governed their entitlements. I say we go back to the system of churches and charities helping the poor, and the government would only assist those that are truly disabled.
Didn’t mean to hijack the thread but i agree with you. Its the entitlement mentality. Thats not what is happening in Britain though. I’d wager that muslim people in government have been pushing for this and other changes to bring them closer.
LOL
What the people don’t understand; “They giveth; they take away.” And they will.
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