I know were used to reading articles etc... about benefit cheats but I just saw
and it gives the story from the 'other side'. Here's how the article went:
THEY set out to court publicity hoping to force Clare County Council to provide them with a permanent home but ended up being shamed as social welfare scroungers accused of milking the system for €3,800 a month.
'Meet the Hartes' went the headline of a newspaper article last week which featured the rented eight-bedroom home where they live with six children, two cars, and the 50-inch television, beside which the unsuspecting family posed.
Ger and Danielle Harte have unwittingly found themselves held up as a poster couple for state sponsored living, collecting an income that many families have to put in a 40-hour week to earn.
Sitting in the living room of the sparsely furnished house in Ardnacrusha last week, the Hartes were fuming.
The couple claim they have been misrepresented, vilified, and have dreaded putting their noses outside the door since the social welfare benefits they rattled off to a journalist became a front-page headline. Ger, 33, said he couldn't go to Xtra-vision with his son last Wednesday to buy "a €29 Nokia phone" without people commenting.
To say that they are "hurt" is very much an understatement, said Danielle.
They are soon to be homeless, awaiting eviction from the privately owned house over rent arrears. The family was due to move out on August 5 but has refused to leave because they have nowhere to go. Danielle, 31, however, points to their belongings packed in black bin bags.
And for the record, they say they have one laptop, not two, and bought the 50-inch television for €400; and the cars are clapped-out bangers that cost €800 and €600 respectively. But for low paid workers it was the €3,800 a month in state benefits that was most galling.
Hot on the heels of an OECD report that suggested Ireland's generous benefits encouraged more people to stay on the dole came An Bord Snip Nua, which recommended cutting social welfare by five per cent to save €850m in a full year.
"Yes I accept that there is anger over it. I understand why there is anger over it, to be honest," said Danielle, 31. "I think the anger is because people have now been given the impression of the money we are in receipt of, whereas in actual fact, that's not fact. We worked it out. Our total is €1,920 a month."
She hasn't included in that figure the €1,144 in child benefit, which gives them a monthly income of €3,064. Danielle said that's because they used the child benefit to pay the €1,000 a month rent for the eight-bedroom home since Clare County Council turned them down for rent allowance. They used to get €800 a month but the €430,000 mini-mansion in Ardnacrusha doesn't meet the standards to qualify.
That was why the Hartes went to the newspapers in the first place. They say all they were trying to do was highlight their campaign to get the council to give them a permanent council home so that Ger can return to work.
Ger claimed he only gave up his job in a cash and carry in late 2004 because his wife fell ill while pregnant with their sixth child. But he is at pains to point out that he paid his taxes for 10 years.
"I helped the economy if you ask me. Before the Celtic Tiger came along, I was holding down three jobs. . ."
So what about getting a job now?
"Of course I want to go back to work. I can't wait to go back to work. I am absolutely craving, I am a workaholic. I've been working since I was 16 years of age. At 16 years of age I worked in a bakery from 10pm until 7am, six days a week. I was coming out with £100 which was a fortune in 1990," said Ger.
But Danielle pointed out: "We're homeless at the moment, how can he go back to work? For the last few months our whole focus has been on trying to find a home. It's only common sense; how can Ger go out and find a job when all his family are on the verge of being made homeless?" she asked.
There is no doubt that the Hartes have had their share of difficulties and have not enjoyed the advantages of third-level education. And they are not slow to blame others for their troubles.
They once had a council house of their own. But it was in Moyross, a troubled and impoverished Limerick suburb where they did not want to raise their children.
They have lived in a succession of rented homes ever since -- paid for by the council -- including an emergency stint in Jurys Inn ("a nightmare", said Danielle, "six children stuck in a hotel room, bored stiff").
Their current troubles began when they moved to Killaloe, 20 minutes from Parteen National School which their children attended. The commute got too much for the family, and the Hartes claim they were going to switch the children to a closer school. They were persuaded to keep the children in Parteen, with a local councillor Cathal Crowe, finding them a house, and the parish priest, Fr Tom Carroll, giving them €1,000 towards the deposit.
The Hartes had already moved in when Clare County Council inspected the property and found it didn't meet the required standards for rent allowance. And so the Hartes found themselves living in a house that the council wouldn't pay for.
Fr Carroll and Cllr Crowe denied putting any pressure on the family. Fr Carroll would only say: "We have supported that family. We welcomed them into the school from the first day and we have supported them since."
The Hartes could do with a bit of local support. "The country now views us as a couple that are just sitting back, chilling out, enjoying life, that we've plenty of money on state benefits. That's what the country now thinks of us. So I am very upset and angry by it because, in fact, it's the total opposite," said Danielle, again failing to include the €1,144 child benefit in her calculations. "We are surviving on the breadline. We can barely survive on that."
Perhaps the Hartes could spare a thought for John, an IT salesman who didn't want to give his name. He is married with five young children, travels a two-hour commute to work, and brings home a net income of €1,900 per month.
His salary of €32,000 a year is their only income; his wife stays at home to care for their five children. Once tax and PRSI are taken into account, and his €244 in travel expenses deducted (that's the monthly cost of a return train ticket to work each day), he gets €1,900 into his hand. The €941 child benefit brings his income to €2,841, still less than the Harte's €3,000-plus.
The money disappears rapidly; €850 goes to pay the mortgage; €144 on family health insurance; and at least €300 a week on food.
He applied for a GP card.
When they had trouble meeting their electricity bill last year, their pleas for state assistance were turned down.
John admits he has been tempted to quit work.
"I pay over a grand in tax every month. We don't milk the system. We pay for everything we have for our kids.
"I know numerous people who get so many benefits that life doesn't cost them anything. Make it worthwhile for people to work. Don't make it difficult," he said.
- MAEVE SHEEHAN
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