
Known for her advice on maximising benefits, 31-year-old Whitney Ainscough earned enough money to purchase a Range Rover and treat herself to a gastric sleeve.
A self-described bad mum who claims to make nearly £500,000 a year by showing social media followers how to manipulate the benefits system says she’ll never get a job.
Whitney Ainscough claims she is unconcerned with the criticism she receives online for demonstrating how she took use of the benefits system to her fullest advantage.
She now says she earns hundreds of thousands of pounds from Facebook advertisements that appear before her videos and from commissions on TikTok purchases made by her admirers.
The rebellious 31-year-old teaches her 954,000-strong fan base how to take advantage of the Department of Work and Pensions to maximise their benefits, claim Motability cars, and even receive free phones.
She now uses her social media proceeds to purchase top-flight cars, treat herself to gastric sleeve surgery and Botox injections, and take her children out of school for luxury term-time holidays.
And she does it all while living in a reduced-rent council house – for which there is no upper limit to income once you’re in the door.
Ainscough even likens herself to finance guru Martin Lewis – and says it’s not her fault the benefits system is set up the way it is.
Instead, she candidly confesses she tries to ‘deliberately wind up’ people who don’t like the way she operates – so they maximise her profits online.
She told The Sun: ‘I was shameless about bragging about my benefits. I knew the more I bragged about getting Universal Credit, the more trolls and followers I’d attract. If you want to label me a scrounger that is fine – it means I get more cash in the bank.’
After leaving her pharmacy work, Ainscough, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, went on benefits—but only after taking advantage of paid maternity leave.
The mother of three decided in 2022 that she could not afford nursery costs and childcare expenses – and quit her job to join the dole queue.
She started researching how to succeed on social media while she was at home taking care of her 12-year-old Cora, her 7-year-old Addison, and her 3-year-old Adley.
She added: ‘I had no option but to stay at home, care for the three kids and claim benefits. I couldn’t afford to return to work. And why should I trudge to job interviews?’
Starting in 2023, Ainscough began sharing videos on how to live cheap – before turning to videos showing her children in designer gear after saving up her benefits.
One of her most contentious wind-up videos saw her packing her child’s lunchbox with a vape.
In one video, she claims the JobCentre supplies job searchers with mobile phones – before appearing to quip they can then be taken to a pawnbrokers for cash.
‘Seriously: if you apply for jobs and you’ve lost your phone or broken it – just break it anyway – you can get a free phone to do your job searches.
‘It’s yours – you can take it down Cash’s. That might be worth £80, £100.’
The video then cuts to her sitting in her car, speaking in a more serious tone as she says: ‘On a serious note, this is actually true. The JobCentre will and can provide you with a brand new phone from Argos.’
Her weekly DWP payment peaked at £1,151 a week across housing benefits, child and adult allowances and additional child benefits.
In one foul-mouthed post, she showcased her £1,151.90 weekly entitlement as she said: ‘Why would I get a job? I get your monthly wage in a week – so why would I put myself out and get a job? I mean I’m living my f****** best life, f****** hell.’
‘My new mobility car pending, how nice… best bit it costs me nothing,’ she said in one TikTok, showing her face over a new Kia Sportage SUV.
‘I’m absolutely buzzing… I do have to put a bit of a down payment on it, but then my mobility side pays for the rest. I get it all… it’s brand new, absolutely buzzing. Me and girls will be driving in style,’ she boasted.
‘While everyone else is working today and slaving away, I am on my way to the train station to go to London, because I don’t work and I can just travel,’ she said in a July 2023 video, laughing.
She stopped receiving Universal Credit in November 2023 because her social media earnings became too high for her to continue receiving the benefit.
She currently uses TikTok to sell items like inexpensive pyjamas, vlogging equipment, cosmetics, portable fans, and cleaning supplies in exchange for a commission.
She told the Sun that she earned £60,000 in November of last year and has since averaged £50,000 a month.
She engaged an accountant since her profits were so high, and she now uses a private business called It’s Me Bad Mum Ltd. to funnel her earnings and reduce her tax liability.
She concluded: ‘It’s not illegal. Benefits are offered for a reason. People need to stop moaning about people getting benefits they deserve — and other people helping them do that.’
Earlier this year, she was threatened with a criminal record after taking her children on holiday during the school term – splashing out £5,000 on a Cyprus trip and £8,000 on a gallivant to Zante.
And a year ago, she told MailOnline she racked up £30,000 of debt to ‘feel better’ after escaping domestic violence.
She claims that the reason she lives in a council home is that she was unable to obtain a mortgage because an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) to settle the debt badly damaged her credit rating.
She told us in March 2024: ‘I have no idea how I became so good at TikTok. It stemmed from my first viral video on TikTok and once you start getting viral videos you just start getting more popular.’
She added that ‘joke’ videos of her packing vapes in packed lunches were ‘just for TikTok and for bants. It is just content.’
However, the majority of people are worse off working, and our government just doesn’t give a damn about us, but the younger generation is not stupid – our government believe that they are but they’re not, far from it! After all, why should they work till they drop? They will never see their pensions, which they paid into and our government is stealing.
Working in the UK is a meaningless exercise these days – you’re just working to pay the bills – no indulgences, but if you’re coming in from a foreign country you get everything you want – even driving lessons and a hotel et cetera.
Good for her! People might call it scrounging, but if the Royal Family can do it, why can’t we?

















