A working mum who is living so close to the breadline she has to rent her television says she’s terrified of what will happen when Universal Credit payments fall next month.
Struggling mother Tracey B, lost her job at the start of the Covid pandemic and was pushed onto benefits.
She did not qualify for furlough and her problems were exacerbated when her ex-husband lost his job after being diagnosed with cancer.
“I’m a single mum already, I receive no child maintenance due to my former partner’s condition and I had no wages because I lost my job,” Tracey told The Mirror.
“I had to take payment holidays on my loan and credit cards. I was hoping a suitable job would come up I could fit around my son. Nothing did, but I was offered a role as a carer, which allows me £160 a month through universal credit.”
Tracey says her income and benefit payments are far from enough to cover her outgoings.
Earlier this year she had to ask Stepchange for help to repay her loans. Now she is on a 19 month repayment plan.
“I live on a strict budget, which we’ve had to get used to,” she says.
“However, my worry is that I'm now going to lose some of my Universal Credit allowance.”
Tracey says she has nothing of value left as she has no car and her TV is rented.
“I feel sorry for all the people in this particular boat, it feels like we are all going to be thrown overboard when we've struggled so hard over the last year and a half,” she says.
Almost three and a half million children will be affected by the cut to Universal Credit payments from next month, figures suggest.
Yet the Chancellor has declined all calls for an extension of the £20 a week uplift, despite millions warning it will push them to foodbanks.
There were more than 1.8 million households containing around 3.4 million children claiming the benefit as of May 2021, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
The figures, published on Tuesday, for the first time show the number of children in households claiming Universal Credit in Britain.
Almost half had a child under the age of five and 570,000 families had a youngest child aged 5-10.
It comes as polling for Save the Children found that almost half of UC claimants do not think they will be able to get by with a budget that is £20 lower a week.
Dan Paskins, director of UK Impact at Save the Children, said: "These figures confirm that the Government's scheduled cut to Universal Credit will affect nearly three-and-a-half million children.
"The £20 increase has been a lifeline for many families. Parents we work with tell us that they're relying on the extra £20 per week to buy essentials like food and clothes for their children. Without it, we know that many more families will be pushed into the red.
"This is especially worrying since three-quarters of families with children on Universal Credit have a child under ten, and we know that living in poverty as a young child has lifelong impacts."
Wes Streeting, Labour's shadow child poverty secretary, said the cut will hit the "lowest paid hardest" and hinder economic recovery.
He said: "There is near universal opposition to this cut, which will push more children into poverty.
"Time is running out for the Prime Minister to see sense, back struggling families and cancel his cut to Universal Credit.”
A Government spokesman said: "We are committed to making sure every child gets the best start in life and introduced the temporary uplift as part of a £400 billion support package that has provided a vital safety net for millions of families.
"Children in households where every adult is working are around five times less likely to be in poverty than households where nobody works.
"That is why our focus now is on our multi-billion pound Plan for Jobs, which will support people in the long-term by helping them learn new skills and increase their hours or find new work.
"We also have a comprehensive childcare offer in place for working parents as well as further help in place for families with the cost of living - including by maintaining nearly £1 billion of additional housing support through local housing allowance rates."
Should the £20 uplift be made permanent? Let us know in the comments below
