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Jobless couple demand bigger council house because mother is 'really fertile' and can't help getting pregnant

Maggie Flisher and husband Gavin, who claim £27,000-a-year in benefits, have not worked since having the first of their six young children

Gavin and Maggie Flisher in their one bedroom flat with their six children. (SWNS)

A jobless couple with SIX children are demanding a new four-bedroom home from the council - because the mother is 'really fertile' and can't help getting pregnant.

Maggie Flisher and husband, who claim £27,000-a-year in benefits, have not worked since having the first of their six young children.

Maggie, 26, who claims she is 'super-fertile', says she has wanted a bigger home ever since her first child - after which she went on to have five more children.

She hasn't worked since 2005 because she says she's 'depressed', while husband Gavin, 30, has to stay in their cramped home to look after her and their offspring.

The couple currently get an annual total of £22,900 in benefits, including £540-a-month in jobseekers allowance, child benefit of £85-a-week and child tax credit of £1,000 a month.

They also get housing benefit of £270-a-month to pay the rent on their flat in Maidstone, Kent.


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Maggie says she has repeatedly fallen pregnant because of failures with the pill, condoms, arm implants and a contraceptive injection.

Maggie and her two-year-old daughter Lilyrose sleep on a sofa bed in the lounge alongside three-month-old twins Martin James and Paris Nicola in moses baskets.

Gavin meanwhile beds down wherever he can find a space.

They couple say they have so little room they have to rent a nearby lock-up to store their childrens' toys - paid out of their dole money.

Maggie said: 'I've been here ten years but I've wanted to move since I had my first child and she's eight now.

'I had the twins this April and the council knew I was pregnant because I went and told them.

'I bid for a house and they said I was top priority but another person had been on the list longer so she got it.

'My girls are literally always arguing because they want their own space and my son has a pink and yellow room.

'The four-bed homes are like gold dust. I’ve been told I’m a main priority but then they are given to someone else.

'I reckon they should build more four bedroom houses because all the ones they have are full.

'I just have to keep pestering the council if I'm going to be given a move.'

Maggie was working in telesales when she first moved into the one-bedroom council flat in 2003 by herself.

The following year she married labourer Gavin and their eldest child Lacieann was born  in 2005 - and the couple haven't worked since.

Maggie claims she can’t help getting pregnant because she is "really fertile".

 

[Welfare cap of £500-a-week comes into force]


She says she begged her doctor to be sterilised but was told she was too young to be considered.

She added: 'I had contraception for all the children apart from my first one.

'I had the needle, I took the pill, I had the implant and for the twins I was taking the pill and had an implant.


'The doctor just said I was really fertile and they don't know what to do.'

Maidstone council said they would not move a family into a new home if there was still going to be an issue with overcrowding.

A spokesman said: 'Housing associations do not accept nominations for houses where applicants would be classed as overcrowded so applicants with a four-bed need are advised not to bid on three-bed houses.


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'Social housing is scarce and bids made through the Kent Homechoice website are considered by the waiting time on the housing register.

'Where families have a need for large homes, they are offered support with looking for a house in the private sector and given information on a mutual exchange swap.'