A single mother on benefits has admitted spending £3,000 of taxpayers' cash on a dream round-the-world trip to far flung destinations with her 10-month-old baby daughter.

Kay Bird, 28, from Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, is unemployed and lives comfortably with her middle-class parents.

Her mother Jill, 54, and stepfather lawyer Bob, 61, pay for all her rent, bills and all other outgoings.

Unemployed single mother Kay Bird, who has admitted spending £3,000 of taxpayers' cash on a round-the-world trip to far flung destinations with her 10-month-old baby Chloe. She is pictured with her daughter in Dubai

Miss Bird and her young daughter splash around in the Indian Ocean during the trip. The young mother receives more than £8,500 in various benefits

But she still receives more than £8,500 a year in child benefit, income support and tax credits as it is considered that she has a low income.

And now she has admitted that she has spent £3,000 of her welfare benefits on a five-week-long trip with her daughter Chloe, where she visited places such as Australia, Bali and Dubai.

Miss Bird says she could work but chooses not to so she can take care of her young child.

She said: 'No, I don’t need the money as such and I didn't need to go travelling either but I wanted to so I did.

'If someone’s offering you free money and telling you to take it, you’d have to be a fool not to – that’s all I did.

'Once it’s in my bank account it’s up to me how I use it and I decided to spend it on taking the trip of a lifetime.

Miss Bird, pictured with her daughter Chloe, says she doesn't need the benefit money as her parents pay for all of her rent and other outgoings but would be a 'fool' not to take 'free money'

The round-the-world trip began last month when Miss Bird jetted off to Sydney, right, with Chloe via London. She also visited destinations such as Bali and Sri Lanka, left

'I don’t feel guilty and I don’t regret it. It started off just as a ­holiday to Athens, then things started to fall into place.

'Each time some more money landed in my account, I booked something.

'I started booking flights and accommodation in Europe in October and was booking something with every payment until a few days before I went.'

Miss Bird set off on her round-the-world trip last month when she flew to Sydney via London on January 10.

She also visited Athens, Istanbul, Dubai, Colombo in Sri Lanka, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bali and Darwin before returning home via Amsterdam.

In total, she spent four months worth of her benefits cash on the trip, paying for 13 flights, travel visas, accommodation and spending money.

Her benefits continued to be paid into her bank account while she was away and she returned to the UK just before the five-week travel limit imposed on people claiming Jobseekers' Allowance.

It is reported that the 28-year-old spent four months worth of her benefits cash on the trip, paying for 13 flights, travel visas, accommodation and spending money for her and daughter Chloe, right

She added: 'I went to the job centre and told them I wanted to go travelling and they told me there was a five-week limit. I came home just within those five weeks so my benefits didn't get cut off.'

Miss Bird had been living in Rome after studying psychology at La Sapienza university in the Italian capital when she became pregnant.

After she found out she was expecting a baby, she returned to the UK to live with her parents and visited her local Jobcentre Plus office.

Soon after she was claiming £90 a week income support, £90 a month child benefit and £230 a month in tax credits.

She said: 'I told them I wanted to register back in the country and they told me I was already eligible for Jobseekers’ Allowance.

'Then a couple of weeks later they said I could switch to income support which meant I didn’t even have to apply for jobs.

'Then I was told I could get tax credits, too. I was really shocked at how generous it was but I wasn’t going to turn it down.'

However, she does not receive any money from her daughter's father, a professional rugby player she met in Rome but now lives in Australia, saying she asked him not to pay maintenance because she doesn't need it.

Now she says she is planning her next luxury trip for herself and daughter which will be to New Zealand.

Among the places that Miss Bird visited were Athens in Greece, left, and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, right

But Miss Bird says her way of life could help change the perception of single mothers on benefits.

She explained: 'I’m not your regular single mum on benefits who spends it all in McDonald’s and never leaves the town they were born in.

'I’m changing the image of what it is to be a benefits mum and proving that if you do it the right way, you can have ­anything you want.

'They've chosen to eat takeaways and buy the latest gadgets. I chose a different route.

'OK, I don’t have any outgoings so I have been lucky to spend my benefits on this amazing experience but I think single mums get more than enough.

'Of course people are negative and many people get very jealous.

'But I had only been out of Europe once before I went on benefits and now I’ve had the chance to see some incredible things from tropical beaches to the ­skyscrapers of Dubai.