I’ll earn £15k this month but hate my council house & deserve a BIGGER one – I’ve spent taxpayers’ cash on a car too
SQUEEZED into her two-bed council house, mum Whitney Ainscough, 30, says it’s ‘too small’ and she needs a bigger one.
It’s a complaint heard up and down the UK - but most people don’t have Whitney’s unexpected salary or splash out on as many luxuries as her.
That includes, just a few days ago, a Range Rover which was purchased entirely in cash.
Whitney admits the £15k car was bought with “a small part through taxpayers’ money but is all legal and all mine”.
Whitney, from Rotherham, South Yorks., lives with partner, painter Joel Christopher, 32, and is mum to Cora, 11, Addison, six, and Adley, two.
Until August she was on benefits after quitting her job in a chemist in May 2021, but since then her income has shot up - a surprising result of becoming a ‘chav’ influencer - something she’s delighted about.
Fabulous revealed on Sunday she earnt £4k in December - a result of her massive and growing social media following where she recounts details of her life such as when Cora was told off for wearing £100 designer shoes to school or she let her get her belly button pierced, aged 11.
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At £4k a month, Whitney’s pre-tax salary equates to £208k a year - but it’s set to get even bigger as this month alone Whitney is in line to bank £15k.
“It’s through advertising from video views and commissions from the TikTok shop I sell tracksuits, cleaning products and air fryers and collab brand fees,” she says.
She stopped receiving benefits in September, although bought the Range Rover with savings she had accrued from them, and has gone from being virtually penniless to being able to afford tweakments such as a £4k Egyptian gastric sleeve, filler and posh toys for her kids.
Still, she’s adamant she won’t leave her council house and is now demanding a bigger one - which ultimately she hopes to buy at a discounted rate.
“The haters told me I was the great British problem and bragged about being on benefits,” she says. I don't really care what they think.
“I’m just happy raking in the money on social media and paying £450-a-month rent.
“I don’t claim benefits anymore - but I’m still called a benefits’ scrounger and I am still refusing to leave my council house… in fact I want a bigger one.
I need an office and we need a larger kitchen and lounge area
Whitney Ainscough
“I am not going to stop living in my council house as with three kids my two-bedroom council house is too small.
“I need at least an extra two rooms. That would give each of the kids their own room. I need an office and we need a larger kitchen and lounge area. I use these rooms to film my daily Tik Toks and share my life.
"I need a bigger house. I deserve a bigger house. The council owes it to me.
“Just because I have made £9k in the past two weeks and am likely to end up with a £15k pay packet for February doesn’t mean I don’t deserve a bigger council house.
“Fingers crossed, I’m going to get the four-bedroom house of my dreams.
“It’s a lush deal because the council do all the repairs for free. Why should I pay when the council and taxpayers will?”
How to apply for council housing?
To apply for a council house, you need to hand in an application through your local authority.
To find your local authority you can use the Government's council locator tool on its website.
After applying, you'll most likely have to join a waiting list.
Bear in mind, even if you are put on to a waiting list, this doesn't guarantee you a council house.
Your council should also offer you advice on how to stay in your home and solve any issues you might have, such as problems with a private landlord or mortgage.
You are eligible to apply for council housing if you are a British citizen living in the UK and you have not lived abroad recently.
Each council has its own local rules about who qualifies to go on the housing register in its area, but it is based on "points" or a "banding" system.
One you are high enough on a council's waiting list, it will contact you with an available property.
When you can apply varies.
Some councils let people apply at the age of 18, while others even let 16-year-olds apply.
EU workers and their families and refugees may also be eligible.
She praised her local council for their rapid repair work should anything go wrong - explaining she didn’t have to pay for anything including a boiler - and said she was going to ask them to fix her extractor fan next.
Whitney got her first council house in October 2017 after she and Cora, then four, moved back in with her mum.
“I was living in a privately rented tiny two bed house paying £500 a month,” she says. “The landlord refused to fix my boiler. I moved back in with my mum and put myself on the council house list.”
Whitney and her daughter were sleeping on the floor because all the bedrooms were already being used by other family members.
The more they hate on me the more my videos go viral.
Whitney Ainscough
“It was overcrowded,” she says. “I was effectively homeless because I could not afford the private rent and I had a daughter.”
Within five months Whitney was given a three-bedroom house in Rotherham paying just £400 a month.
Then in January 2019 Whitney, who was then pregnant with her second child, sought an upgrade.
“My three-bed council house didn't have a garden,” she says, adding it was something she was keen on.
Barely four months later Whitney’s bid for a ‘better council house’ was granted.
People tell me to ‘pay my way’ but I’m not bothered. If people can’t understand how the council house system works, it’s not my problem.
Whitney Ainscough
“We got a two-bedroom new-build with a huge garden,” she says. “It was just what I wanted and I took care of it,” she says. “A bedroom for me and one for the two kids and the garden. It was important I had a garden for the kids to enjoy. Everything was new.”
Whitney fell pregnant with her third child in 2021 and took maternity leave after he was born.
“When my maternity leave finished in May 2022 the cost of nursery fees and wraparound childcare costs meant I couldn’t afford to go back to work,” she says.
She left her job as a pharmacy assistant and applied for Universal Credit receiving £1.2k in benefits a month.
This included £400 for her two-bedroom council house, child benefit payments and jobseekers’ allowance.
“I wasn’t going to turn down ‘free money’ I was entitled to,” she says.
Even on benefits she saved cash, buying Cora posh Ugg boots and an iPad.
Soon her videos about using taxpayers’ money to help fund lip filler, plastic surgery and buy her kids designer presents went viral making her a hot target for trolls.
But - rather than be hurt - she loves it because it raises her profile and therefore her cash.
“I love it and the trolls,” she says. “The more they hate on me the more my videos go viral. I can’t help that they are not bright enough to realise I was using the money I am entitled to.
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“I considered myself a ‘savvy scrounger’ that made the trolls even angrier.
“People tell me to ‘pay my way’ but I’m not bothered. If people can’t understand how the council house system works, it’s not my problem.”
