I own land, give me money!

Emailed in by MBK from The Sunday Times:

A LANDLORD has collected taxpayer-funded rents of £3,550 a week by letting out two modest former council properties.

James Wiemer, 56, rented two three-bedroom properties in central London to two families — one with five children, the other with six. In one case he converted the property into five bedrooms and, in doing so, made it potentially eligible for housing allowance payments of up to £1,800 a week.

Wiemer, 56, who has received total rents of almost £400,000 in just over three years, has now joined the two families in a legal attempt to retain extra payments after the government imposed a £400-a-week cap.