ff - I'm thinking about a chap whose family I knew. He was a builder (a roofer to be specific) with a wife and 2 small children. They'd been out there (France)about 18 mths. when he fell off a roof, was quite badly injured, and his family were ignored. Concerted effort by ex-pat group (who had integrated and spoke French) eventually managed to sort it out in that his wife became entitled to the weekly hand-out at the Mairie (flour, pasta rice etc..) otherwise, until then, she was relying on the ex-pat community. She baked cakes, did anything to survive, but times were very tough until he could return to work. They had no other financial help and built up more of a debt on their house. Eventually, after a couple of very hard years, things returned to an even keel.
I am very, very cross to read about this family being given so much for nothing.