$3.8 million home taxpayer-funded

LONDON, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- A London mother of eight whose $3.8 million home is funded by taxpayers said she is "not going to pretend it isn't great."

Francesca Walker, 33, and her children, ranging in age from 5 to 16, moved into the $133,000-per-year home on the taxpayer's dime as a result of a loophole in Kensington and Chelsea council rules that requires the council to find a suitably-sized home for the unemployed woman and her family, The Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

"The council had no five-bedroom council properties available and said the only way we could move was to join their LetStart Scheme, where you rent from a private landlord," Walker said. "It wasn't my preference but eventually I went to Foxtons and got this place, signing a three-year contract."

Walker, whose children resulted from two failed marriages, said the benefits program would cease to pay her rent if she were to get a job.

"I didn't ask to be here," she said. "I'd rather have a job and live in an ordinary council house than be trapped in a catch-22 situation where going out to work will actually make me worse off because I can never make enough to pay the rent."

However, she said, "now that I am here, I'm not going to pretend it isn't great. It's amazing to have so much space. And not to wake in the morning and have nine of us desperately queuing to use one bathroom."