After my husband left me and my 1 year old son I was forced to to claim Universal Credit. From the age of 16 I have worked full time, paid my taxes and never claimed for anything in my life. Now that it is my time of need after paying my contribution for 10 years, I am being punished like so many of you.

Although I am enormously grateful for the help I get from Universal Credit, I still struggle on a monthly, weekly and even daily basis. Wrapping my small child in multiple layers of clothing in bed to save money on the heating bill, eating the leftover food from my child’s plate so they don’t go hungry and constantly worrying about money and making ends meet on a daily basis should not be the way we live our lives.

Universal Credit clearly does not work and it is causing poverty across the UK!