Search: Immigrants housing
Taxpayers are paying £1,600 a week for a former asylum seeker and her family to live in a luxury flat, it has been reported.
Somali Nasra Warsame, 40, lives with seven of her children and mother in the property just off Edgware Road, central London, which is worth £1.8 million, according to The Sun newspaper.
She and husband Bashir Eden - both said to be unemployed - fled Somalia in 1991 and have been rehoused by Westminster Council after losing their previous home.
The flat is said to feature five storeys, six bedrooms and four bathrooms.
Nasra said: "It is quiet and convenient and we do not want to leave. It is better than the house we were in before. It was quite small and we were getting complaints from neighbours that the children were being too noisy."
Local authorities claim from the Government the money they have to pay to rehouse people, and Westminster Council said it wants the system changed.
Housing cabinet member Philippa Roe said: "The amount of housing benefit is determined by government policy.
"We would like to see the entire system changed to enable local councils to have more control."
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A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said reform proposals for the housing benefit system were being launched shortly.
"We want the system to be fair both to families in need and to the taxpayer," he added.
