A single mum says she goes hungry so she can feed her daughter as her Universal Credit payment struggles continue.
Simone Dempsey currently holds down a 20-hours-a-week job as a bookmaker while looking after her five-year-old daughter Carlee-Skyla, reports the Mirror.
The 43-year-old also relies on Universal Credit to fund the rising costs of childcare.
She is determined to cling on to regular employment, but Simone says that Universal Credit is making that hard for her.
Simone struggles to offer her daughter the meals that she wants as her growing financial turmoil continues to take its toll.
“I can’t let her have sweets when she wants them,” she says.
"In the cupboards we have lots of beans because they are cheap. But Carlee being a kid has gone off them, so it makes it very hard.
"I can't give her the things she wants, can't give her the food she wants.
"She loves chicken nuggets and chips, but I can't afford them and I can't buy frozen ones to put in the freezer as it's broken and can't afford another one. I have to bribe her: 'Oh let's have some chicken soup'.
"I can't give her that choice, it's awful.”
She adds: "I go hungry sometimes so that Carlee can eat, I'll let her have the last sausage."
And as for something that any little girl would want - toys, they are out of the question.
"No way I'm able to afford toys. When I get paid I buy clothes, because she's growing.
"It's a constant struggle to afford clothes let alone toys, they don't even come into the equation.
"Kids grow so fast."
Raising Carlee-Skyla alone she can't afford to work full time but does her best to hold onto her job because it's the only secure income she has.
But she claims Universal Credit makes her fear for losing her job - despite claims it was designed to encourage people to work.
She was left wishing January away fretting about how she was going to feed her child, get to work and warm the house in winter.
Universal Credit is paid monthly rather than weekly or fortnightly as were previous benefits. If you are deemed to have received two wages from work in one month your Universal Credit payment will be sanctioned - and heavily.
"There was a day in it," said Simone. "I was supposed to receive around £600 but they told me I had been paid too much money. I only received £200 for the month.”
This left her unable to get to work as she had no money for the bus .
"You just try to make it work. It's so hard to explain to people who don't know. You just make do, you have to for your child."
Simone has also been receiving mixed messages from Job Centre staff, and says she feels “powerless".
At one point she claims she was told her Universal Credit payment could be affected because she was in a pension scheme at work, and this is classed as earnings.
Simone has been left "mentally and physically sick from stress and crying my eyes out" with the situation.
She has two older children and she says without support from them, her doctor and an "understanding" boss, she doesn't know what she would do.
And she fears for other people in her position who don't have such people in their lives.
"Anyone else it would have pushed them over the edge. I couldn't see a way forward at all," she says.
"You can't see a way out, it feels like they have taken everything away from you, you are helpless.
"Universal Credit hasn't worked from day one, this is always happening.”
A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions confirmed pension income is classed as ‘unearned income’, and can result in Universal Credit payments being reduced.
They said: “No one receives a sanction for receiving two salary payments. If two months’ wages are paid in the same assessment period then that month’s Universal Credit payment will reduce, but it will increase again the following month.”
