Universal Credit pressure parents into finding jobs by threatening with “sanctions”. The Universal Credit system is supposed to be there to help those who need it, not add unnecessary pressures onto claimants who already have their hands full looking after a child/children.
As a parent I have found it challenging being a UC claimant with a child. I found that I was discriminated against because I wanted to raise my child instead of putting her in full-time nursery when she was born. I always had a parent figure in my life every day until I was about 10 years old. I remember my mum being at home cooking and cleaning for when I got home from school. By that time my brother and sister were old enough to sort themselves out. My dad worked self-employed and we managed as a family. 
My child is now 5 and in school. I have recently graduated within the last year from University - again that threw even more of a spanner in the works when it came to UC. Since the covid pandemic I have enjoyed spending the time with my child through the lockdowns and I now have a sense of how my mum felt when raising me when I was little. 

Since the Universal Credit was introduced many claimants have been worse off. There is a pressure for stay-at-home parents to find a job even if the other parent is working and this should not be the case. No parent should be penalised for wanting to raise a child/children. Depending on what day-to-day activities involve - when a child is in the mix a job is not always first thought but that is not understood by UC.
No child should be deprived of parental contact and that should be taken into consideration when claiming Universal Credit. Not the job-seeking. Putting this pressure onto parents can fuel the downfall of mental health as that parent could potentially be made to feel like their child/children are an inconvenience by the people who are supposed to help. Forcing a person into work is not helping. That person could be on the edge of a breakdown the day, but holding it together because they cannot speak out because they get ignored…I for one get fed up of explaining that I want to be there for my child first before I become self-employed. Children have missed to much since the pandemic hit. Being with them and being there for them is not only beneficial to their mental health and well-being, but it gives them that sense of security and the feeling they’re wanted and not just an inconvenience which is what the UC system makes them out to be.

A joint claim in particular should not be sanctioned if one parent chooses to stay at home to look after a child/children. If there is proof of income UC is adapted accordingly and those payments are used to help with the cost of living. 

The UK Government/ Rishi Sunak needs to review the Universal Credit system and take more consideration when children are involved. Stay-at-home parents need to be accepted as “house people” rather than “unemployed” and helped accordingly. Not sanctioned or made to feel like they are being discriminated against. After all, most people don’t have the disposable income or savings that MPs have.