REAL LIVESWelfare Family at benefi


When the Counihan family’s housing benefit was stopped through a misunderstanding, their lives were torn apart BY AMANDA CAMPBELL


We’ve heard it all before – the Coalition’s stories of the so-called ‘shirkers’ – the benefits cheats and scroungers, who lounge around, sponging off the state; and the ‘strivers’ – hard working mums and dads who will stop at nothing to provide the best for their families, come what may.


But real life is never that clear cut. Unite member and London bus driver Anthony Counihan is a hard working ‘striver’. His salary is not enough to provide for his disabled wife Isabel and their five children – Sarah, 15;AJ, 14; Orla, 12; Aiden, 7; and Vinny, 4 – so the family currently receives housing benefit and tax credits that help to hold things together.


Before 2007 the family had a ‘normal’ life in a secured tenancy in north-west London. But when that July the family moved to Galway, Ireland to look after Anthony’s ill father, they were wrongly advised to surrender the tenancy.


Returning the following August, they eventually moved into private rented accommodation secured by Brent Council, for which they received housing benefit.


In January 2010 Anthony’s father died and left him a worthless piece of poor quality farming land in Galway. When, the next month, the portion of rent the family paid after housing benefit significantly rose – without explanation – the family assumed it was as a result of their being given the land in Ireland and declaring it to the council.


The Counihans went about their everyday life for nearly two years, until they learned the unfortunate news that little Vinny had been diagnosed with autism.


Consequently they went to the housing department for a case review. Anthony and Isabel completed a form, which clearly stated they had inherited this piece of land in Ireland. They were then told they no longer qualified for housing benefit – as ‘land owners’ – and payment to them would cease immediately.


But that was only the start of a Kafka-esque nightmare. January started 2012 off badly, when Anthony was told the family had to pay back £70,000 in housing benefit they had received since March 2009.


At 9 am that grey, January morning, Isabel Counihan stepped off the pavement into the path of an oncoming bus. The bus missed her and went on its way. Isabel’s despair was to continue.


Determined Determined to fight on, the Counihans proved they thought the council had known about the land in 2010. The owed benefits deficit was then brought down to £46,000. But the family had not received any housing benefit since December and by April were £6,000 in debt.


They couldn’t afford to live where they were and had to move into cheaper temporary accommodation in Ealing, some miles away from the children’s schools. This accommodation was also unaffordable and the family were soon in arrears.


The stress was immense. The children had lengthy journeys to school and health issues – including Isabel’s mother’s cancer, Aiden’s eye and weight issues, Sarah’s psychological problems and Vinny’s autism – all further piled on the pressure.


18 uniteWORKS March/April 2013


“We just couldn’t cope,” recalls Isabel. “I was in continuous pain, I just wanted to cut my leg off, but the local hospital refused me a life-changing hip replacement operation because of our ‘social circumstances.’ I blamed myself for what was happening to my children and had to have counselling. I was prescribed anti-depressants and even asked social services to take Aiden and Vinny into care – which they didn’t.”


The debts just kept building up. Anthony was also finding the situation extremely taxing and had to take sick leave for nine weeks. During this time Anthony and Isabel had yet another meeting with the housing office.


“When they told Anthony he had made himself intentionally homeless, we couldn’t believe it,” says Isabel. “The housing adviser then told me to take the family back to Ireland and live in a caravan in the field in Galway.”


Anthony was astonished. “This enraged me so much,” he says. “The injustice of it all was quite incredible. They told Isabel to go and live in Ireland – how on earth can you justify sending a mother and her children off to live in a caravan in a field? It was like a knife in my side.”


In fact Anthony was so affected by this glib ‘advice’, he became suicidal.


By October last year things were beginning to at last look up – the council had recalculated the family’s benefit deficit – this time down to £26,000. A further twist in this labyrinthine tale then took place in November. “We were


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