Welfare mum aims to start print business

An unemployed mother of five is trying to raise $13,000 through crowd funding to start a printing business, despite getting $50,000 a year in welfare.

Alex Girle rose to fame after she appeared on A Current Affair claiming she has no incentive to look for work because a minimum wage job would pay far less than her Centrelink allowance.

The 32-year-old Melbourne woman claims $1871 a week from family tax benefits, single parent payments, and a carer’s allowance for her 15-year-old son who has Cerebral Palsy.

However, she says she wants to work does not want her kids to think they can ‘get paid for sitting on their backsides’ and sees starting a wide format print business as a way out of her welfare cycle.

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Girle says she has started producing wall art and decals for family and friends, but needs new equipment to take the business to the next level and has been knocked back by the banks for the loan she needs.

“They all agree that my business plan is brilliant, however the answer is always the same – I have no credit history or I have too many dependants,” she says.

Girle is aiming to raise $13,000 through her GoFundMe page to buy a second-hand Roland VS 540i printer-cutter, and so far has $2125 from 11 donors in the past 17 days.

She says the new kit will allow her to offer bigger wall art and introduce new products like customised wallpapers, t-shirts, and signage.

“If I'm successful, this will allow me not only to do both cutting and printing all in one it will allow me to triple my output and cut out having to source contractors for the bigger jobs, and offer my customers the best quality out there,” she says.

“I believe in my product, it’s not like the cheap products that come from China. It is made from high quality materials and I'm so confident in my products I give a seven-year warranty on all products I make.”

Girle, who pays $174 a week to live in public housing with her four youngest children, told A Current Affair that despite her welfare cheques she still struggles to get by.

“It’s very hard, sometimes there are nights I’ll go without so there’s enough for the kids,” she says.

On her GoFundMe page she talks of being an ‘emotional wreck’ after getting hundreds of hate messages since the program aired, but does not regret telling her story.

“I did it because we live in a world today where everything is so much harder, and we certainly don’t live in a fair and just world,” she says.

“The very fact that I was trying to make is the system is flawed – but it’s not going to determine mine or my children’s future, only I can do that.”

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