An American woman has criticised the UK, calling the Universal Credit system a “disgrace and a travesty.”
She has begun sending food parcels to friends and family members in the UK who are UC claimants.
Universal Credit was brought in 18 months ago and condenses six benefits into one payment.
Plymouth Live reports UC has pushed vulnerable and struggling people to the extreme.
Some women have reported turning to prostitution to provide food for their families after their UC payments were skipped.
A disabled man in Plymouth, Neil Wright, was shocked to find that instead of receiving £284 as expected, his UC payment came in as 1p leaving him with just 77p to live on for two weeks.
In an email to Plymouth Live, the American woman, who has declined to be named, and her British husband send food parcels to his sister.
They say that she has been "cut off her benefits leaving her with nothing,” stating that "there is something severely wrong with the mentality of the people in control" in Britain.
She said that the UK should feel “embarrassed” that food parcels are needed to support people who should be being helped by the British government.
She compared the UK to the United States, saying that in the US “we value the rights given to each and everyone of us.”
According to the World Bank 2% of the American population live on less than $5.50 a day, compared with 0.7% of the British population.
There have been many people who have struggled with the system, which has replaced six benefits with one single monthly payment.
Jobcentre staff, however, have said there could be a number of reasons that things have broken down or gone wrong for payments.
They added that there are plenty of opportunities to get the problem sorted before it is too late though.
A jobcentre spokesperson said: "Universal Credit - everybody can see what’s happening with their claim, it’s all there for them to be able to access.
"Everything that we do, what we pay them and how much we pay them, is all on their statement which is like a pay statement.
"That is available to see a week before they get paid, so there is an opportunity there if something is not quite right and they think ‘I wasn’t expecting that’, they can come in or report in their journal."
They added that when the problems are reported in the media, the Department for Work and Pensions are unable to comment on individual cases, meaning these problems cannot be explained and make other people "reluctant" to make a claim.
The spokesperson added: "We have lots of success stories and we were just saying that some of the negative press is actually not helping, because people are afraid and reluctant to move onto Universal Credit or to make a claim initially.
"The difficulty is, with the people it has not worked for, we can’t say why it has not worked.
"We’re not saying categorically that the process has worked for them, but equally, we’re not allowed to comment on personal cases. It could be that that customer has been late reporting something or hasn’t provided some information and therefore haven’t got their payment."
