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."
...to understand this development in the UK one has to know something of the long history of government ‘welfare’ in that nation. The ‘poms’ who came to Australia as migrants in the fifties and sixties were already a generation of welfare recipients, expecting free (council) housing, ‘unemployment’ benefits and free health care as their right. (And dental care, that’s why ‘poms’ have such rotten teeth...they would rather see their children’s teeth rot than pay for a dentist.)
Militant unionism was also part of their mindset. They earned themselves the name ‘whinging poms’ and thankfully, many returned after a period of quite disgusting behaviour, their open criticism of Australian society earned them no friends, they literally created a sub-class of their own choosing. But why did they come to Australia?
Because it only cost them ten english pounds per head and many saw the journey as a cheap adventure.
Yes, many did assimilate eventually, but we still have remnants of their militancy in our unions to date - and if a local ‘pom’ can’t be found to stir things up in the labour front, the Unions IMPORT a ‘suitable’ thug from the UK.
The muslims in the UK are not doing anything but taking advantage of what already exists in the system, they are stretching it. And it’s quite acceptable to the ‘poms’ because the majority are totally in favour of ‘getting the government to pay’ -
I cannot recall his name, but there was an ‘imam’ who was deported from the UK, he expected to be allowed to return for heart surgery. I recall the government purchased a vehicle for his family at the cost of thirty thousand sterling - because his family was too large to fit into an ordinary sedan...
Get the picture?
It’s no surprise to an Aussie to read about welfare for four muslim wives...not after our experience with the whinging poms whose entire families expected to be supported by the taxpayer. The poms won’t complain nor take any action because they are on the take themselves!
(PS. Apologies to those from Great Britain who don’t fit the mould.)
Unbelievable! If these a$$wipes have chosen to live in a Western country, then let them live under that country’s laws or go back to the hellholes from whence they came.
This the most pathetic, disgusting, grotesque thing I have heard lately.
The Brits are deeply involved with our F-35 program. So much for keeping anything secret - the dhimmis will give it all away.
When we stop considering them to be allies? And this also begs the question - is this plural giveaway occurring here, and if not, when it does become a US policy, will the ‘feminists’ say anything about the male collecting all the checks?
Didn’t a ‘rogue mormon’ just go to jail for the same thing? I bet a bigamist moslem won’t.
How can I emmigrate to Britain?
It’s like hiring your own assassin.
nope. muslims will destroy the public square. the government wouldn't dare.
England is bringing itself to ruin.
Sad.
They forgot Winston Churchill, now this...
Are we next ?
with multiple mother in laws too
A brave new world. The young ones don’t realize what in time shall be lost.
Most have never learned our history and with our union government schools : they never will.
Yikes, and they all need to shave?
LOL.
Guess I'll stay home.
Rather lovely groups of virgins if I ever saw em. Getting late for me. Do have a great upcoming day.
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.Good news for the UK, honor killings can also now be recognized formally by the state, as can jihad. Thanks george76.
And the US is headed down that same socialist road.
God save the USA. This generation won't.
see what I mean about the ‘poms’?
http://www.bigpond.com/news/offbeat/content/20080204/2153628.asp
Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll which shows nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth, while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real.
The survey found that 47 per cent thought the 12th Century English King Richard the Lionheart was a myth.
And 23 per cent thought World War II prime minister Winston Churchill was made up.
The same percentage thought Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale did not actually exist.
Three per cent thought Charles Dickens, one of Britain’s most famous writers, is a work of fiction himself.
Indian political leader Mahatma Gandhi and Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington were also in the top 10 of people thought to be myths.
Meanwhile, 58 per cent thought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective Sherlock Holmes actually existed, and 33 per cent thought the same of WE Johns’ fictional pilot and adventurer Biggles.
UKTV Gold television surveyed 3,000 people.
As the baby boomers retire, stop paying payroll taxes...and start collecting social security checks and medicare...
Then there will be a huge shock. People will say “ no one told us “ or “ who knew “...as these ponzi schemes start to fail.
Starts in ten years or twenty at most.
This is sickening...and sadly, it’s coming soon to a city near me! Thanks for the info!
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