'I can have 50 kids if I want to': Father defends council's decision to knock two homes together to make a super-home for family-of-12 'on £40,000 a year in benefits'

Two three-bed homes will be knocked into one super six-bedroom property

Father Tim Fisk says his huge family are entitled to bigger home

Says neighbours who objected are 'jealous' and it's nobody's business about his and his family's living arrangements



Council says this is 'most cost-effective option' for family-of-12's needs



Building work will take two months and cost taxpayers £6,000

A jobless couple have been given a council ‘super-home’ for them and their ten children – at the taxpayers’ expense.

Tim Fisk, 43, and his pregnant girlfriend Mandy Ball will get a giant home with six bedrooms and two bathrooms when council bosses pay for two properties to be combined into one.

The couple, who live on benefits, hope to move in with ten of their 12 children before their next child arrives in December.

And despite outrage from neighbours, the defiant pair insist they are entitled to the new house and branded locals who have tried to block the scheme as ‘jealous’.

Council bosses have ordered a wall be knocked through two homes to create one large one to accommodate Tim Fisk's sprawling family

Some 84 outraged neighbours and local residents have signed a petition to try and stop the council making one big home for Mandy Ball and her brood

Mr Fisk said: ‘If I wanted 50 children, that is my decision.

‘Who has got the right to tell me what to do? Why should anyone stick their noses into other people’s business?



‘Getting this larger house is the right thing for us. We are really overcrowded at the moment.’



The former fencing contractor and Miss Ball, 41, receive an estimated £40,000-a-year in benefits including child tax credits, disability living allowance, carer’s allowance, housing benefit and council tax benefit.

Two of their children no longer live with them, but the other ten share the couple’s three-bedroom council house in Ipswich, Suffolk. Eight youngsters share two bedrooms – sleeping four to a room in bunkbeds – while Mr Fisk and his girlfriend sleep in the living room with their 11-month-old baby Neatheus.

Ipswich Borough Council has agreed to give the family the house next door and to pay for the two properties to be knocked together into one giant semi-detached home.

Mr Fisk said he has not worked since 2008, when Miss Ball lost a baby, leaving her suffering from severe depression. He says he now cares for her and their son Daniel, 14, who is blind in one eye and has serious learning difficulties.

Some of the children on holiday in Great Yarmouth. The huge family are expected to be able to move into their large home within two months

Tim Fisk says he cannot work because he has to care for his son, who is blind in one eye and has serious learning difficulties

Although the father of 12 claims to struggle to cover household expenses, the family appear to own an array of hi-tech equipment including a widescreen Samsung television, a Sony DVD player, wireless internet, computer gadgetry and a pub-style fruit machine.

Mr Fisk said: ‘I have worked hard nearly all my life and paid a substantial amount of tax.



‘What difference is it to anyone else, whether I am working or not working?’

The couple moved into their current home in 2006 when they had seven children – Charlie, now 20, Ashley, 18, Sadie, 16, Daniel, 14, Lauren, 13, Callum, 11, and ten-year-old Kyle.

The eldest two have since moved out but meanwhile they have had another five children – Elektra-Mae, now five, Serenity, four, Jayden, three, Starlight, two, and baby Neatheus.

Mr Fisk added: ‘We might not have a lot of space but we work hard to look after our children. I am often up until 1am doing washing and ironing.

The family of 12 will move into a six-bedroom council home at the taxpayers' expense after council chiefs granted permission for the walls between the buildings to be knocked through and transformed into one huge building

'All their clothes are folded up for school each day and they always leave the house with a proper breakfast.’ He added: ‘It is irrelevant what money I get. Anything that comes in is paid out for the kids.’

Ipswich Borough Council says the £6,000 cost of the house conversion is ‘the most cost-effective option’ because of a lack of suitably-sized houses. But more than 80 residents have signed a petition against the decision by the Labour-run authority, saying it deprives another family of a house.

One man, who did not want to be named, complained: ‘It’s a total waste of taxpayers’ money. The house next door to them has been empty for three months and it could have made a nice home for another family in need.’

Tory Ipswich MP Ben Gummer said the row showed why the Government was reforming the benefits system to put a £500-a-week cap on claims by families.

Two council houses in Ipswich will be knocked together to accommodate the huge family