'We're too fat to work'
Friday 27 March 2009
Audrey and Phillip Chawner each weigh 24st and haven’t worked in over 11 years.
They claim they can’t get jobs because of obesity-related illness, and instead the couple and their daughters – Samantha, 21, who’s 5ft 9 and weighs 18st, and 5ft 3 Emma, 19, who weighs 17st – live on benefits totalling £22,508 a year tax free – the equivalent of a 30k salary.
Incredibly, the family refuse to diet, claiming their weight problems are hereditary – even though they spend their time watching TV and scoffing biscuits, crisps and sandwiches.
And outrageously, the Chawners say they deserve even more taxpayers’ money.
Recent figures --have revealed that more than 2,000 Brits get £84.50 a week in benefits because they’re too fat to work – sparking outrage. But Philip, 53, says: “What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table. It’s not our fault we can’t work. We deserve more.”
The family, who weigh a total of 84st, spend £50 a week on food and say they can’t afford to buy more fruit and veg.
“We shop at a bargain supermarket,” says Audrey, from Blackburn, Lancashire. “You can get 24 loo rolls for £5 and four tins of baked beans for 70p.”
Each week they claim they only get through 18 bags of crisps, 30 eggs, 12 rolls, 10 burgers, 12 crumpets, four large pies, two packets of biscuits, two packets of chocolate bars, 1kg of potatoes and a litre of wine.
“We have cereal for breakfast, bacon butties for lunch and microwave pies with mashed potato or chips for dinner,” says Audrey. “We all love nibbling on biscuits. I once bought some pears, but they tasted funny.”
The Chawners don’t think their diet is particularly bad.
Audrey, 57, says: “My mum always used to say, ‘As long as you’ve got some eggs, butter and bread in the house, you’re fine.’”
Each member of the family consumes at least 3,000 calories a day, despite the Department of Health recommending a maximum intake of 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men.
But the family insist it’s not their fault they’re overweight.
“We’re fat because it’s in our genes,” claims 5ft 4 Audrey. “Our whole family is overweight. Even when Philip spent a week in hospital with septicaemia in 2006, he didn’t lose weight. And he was eating tiny portions.”
The family is adamant they want to lose weight but can’t.
“We don’t have time to diet,” says Emma, who admits she’d like to lose 6st. “And all that healthy food, like fruit and veg, is too expensive,” adds Audrey.
Philip, who’s 5ft 10, gave up his job as a lorry driver in 1997 after he developed type II diabetes because of his size.
“The diabetes was making me fall asleep at the wheel,” says Philip. “I haven’t bothered looking for another job because driving is all I know. I’m not good at English so I couldn’t work in an office, and I’d get too tired standing in a factory.
“I was on the waiting list for a gastric band last year, but I wasn’t allowed one because I have a heart condition.”
Audrey last worked in the ’80s at a horse-riding school for a few months. But she hasn’t worked since she developed epilepsy and asthma over 16 years ago, both a result of being overweight.
“I can’t work because I could have an epileptic fit at any time,” she says. “I could work from home, putting stamps on envelopes or something, but I must admit I’ve actually never looked into it.”
“People are cruel and shout ‘Teletubbies’ at us in the street, but it’s not my fault I’m this size. I’d work if I wasn’t disabled.”
Without jobs, the family spend their time watching TV on a set borrowed from a friend.
“We love TV,” says Philip. “It’s on from the moment we get up. Often I’m so tired from watching TV I have to have a nap.”
Each week, the couple – who’ve been married 23 years – receive £177 in income support and incapacity benefit.
Audrey is paid an extra £330 a month disability allowance, while Philip gets £71. They also receive £400 housing benefit a month.
Samantha gets £84 a fortnight in Jobseeker’s Allowance and Emma, who’s training to be a hairdresser, gets £58 hardship fund, designed for low-income students, every two weeks.
“I never get the jobs I apply for,” says single Samantha, who’s unemployed despite having completed a hairdressing course.
“And the Government force me to go to a job club three days a week, which is a waste of time. But if I don’t, I don’t get benefits.”
Emma adds: “I’m a student and don’t have time to exercise. We all want to lose weight to stop the abuse we get in the street, but we don’t know how. Someone just needs to help us.
“Mum and Dad are too poorly to go running and we don’t have the money to join a gym.”
Emma, who smokes, dreams of being a pop star and solving her family’s financial woes. But so far her ambition looks unlikely.
The Chawners made headlines last September when they were evicted from their council house after neighbours complained about Emma’s singing. At the time Emma was rehearsing for ITV1’s The X Factor and kept neighbours awake warbling until 3am. She was kicked off the show after the first audition after Simon Cowell laughed: “You sing like a baby.”
The family ended up living in their seven-seater Toyota Previa car for six weeks and their furniture was put into storage.
In October, the council moved them into a two-bedroom home, but they moan it’s too cramped and they can’t afford their £40 a month rent contribution.
“We don’t even have a garden, so we have to sit indoors all the time,” says Audrey. “When you’re disabled you live on the breadline.”
By Lisa Woollard