TV family's benefits storm

Mr Spry, who has two children from a previous marriage, has given up his 70-hours-a-week job in the nightclub and now works full-time in the restaurant.

In contrast, Mrs Bardsley, who has nine brothers and sisters, worked part-time in various shops until she was 19, but has not had a job for 11 years. She and her husband spend up to £140 a week on cigarettes and £70 on bingo.

They have been living on benefits full-time for more than two years since Mr Bardsley lost his job as a tree surgeon with Rochdale Council in April 2001, which earned him around £10,400 a year.

He had rarely been in work for the previous four years after he developed depression following the death of his father in August 1997.

However, even after Mr Bardsley became jobless, the couple, who had five children — Elliott, 13, Casey, 11, Melody, nine, Marky- Jay, four, and Vienna, three — went on to have another three. These are Saffron, aged two, and one-year-old twins Aneeka and Anoushka. Last night, Mrs Spry attacked the benefits
system that ensures the Bardsleys are so much better off than her family.

‘It really really grates,’ she said. ‘When I saw how much they got, I had to keep reading it again and again because I thought there must be some mistake — but then it listed how they got their benefits.

‘We have always worked really hard. We’ve just released the equity in our house to launch the restaurant, but sometimes you have to take a risk.

‘It’s important to us to work hard and to recover the benefits of that. That’s just the way we’ve been brought up.

‘We have very different backgrounds — Colin spent his first 20 years in a council house, but we have the same values.

‘If it is all handed to you on a plate, there is no incentive to work. It’s
absolutely disgusting that someone on benefits can earn that much.

‘It’s terrible that people like me are working trying to make ends meet and you have a family on benefits who are drinking and smoking and spending £70 a week on bingo.’

Yesterday, however, Mrs Bardsley remained unapologetic about her lifestyle. ‘It is not like we are defrauding the system — we are entitled to all that money,’ she said.

‘There are loads of asylum seekers who get more money from the Social than we do, so why shouldn’t we get what is rightly ours?

‘£37,000 sounds like a lot of money, but when you break it down between ten people, it is only £3,700 each per year. The Sprys had double that amount each to live on because there were only four of them.

‘People should leave us alone and get a life if they have a problem with us having benefits. I am an adult with a mind of my own and if I choose to have eight children, I know I can look after them, love them and provide for them, so what is the problem?

‘We are simply recouping some of the taxes we paid when we were working. The Sprys’ problem was they thought they were a cut above us — but they were the paupers.’

Mr Bardsley added: ‘At the end of the day, they are no better than us, we all p*** in the same pot.’

He claims he would like to go back to work, but, because they would lose their benefits, it is simply not worth him looking for a job.

‘It wouldn’t be worthwhile unless I could bring home at least £600 a week,’ he said.

Channel 4’s Wife Swap website was deluged with messages from viewers
yesterday disgusted that the Bardsleys receive so much in handouts.

The benefits agency in Rochdale was also inundated with calls demanding to know why they were entitled to the cash.