Taking Us For Mugs Pt 793258715893569741

A mum has spoken out about her struggles living on Universal Credit.

Wait, haven't I heard this before?

The Whitehawk resident, who wished to remain anonymous, was forced to apply for benefits after leaving a relationship, leaving her and her son to stick it out by themselves.

Ah. Different location, far away from Bucko's patch. But pretty much the same whinge.

And she wasn't 'forced to apply for benefits' at all. She appears to have been living on benefits for the last 20 years!

“My last job was 20 years ago, and though I want to work and I’m trying to work, I just can’t get hired.

“It’s looking for someone who will give you that chance.”

She doesn't say what she's qualified in, or what she's applying for, but I suspect it's something that she knows full well she'll never get...

Universal Credit was introduced by the Government last year to supposedly simplify the benefits system, combining all benefits into one monthly payment tailor-made to the claimant’s needs.

But the anonymous mum said the payment is not enough and is starting to affect her mental health.

*rolls eyes*

“I hear people like us being referenced as being “below the poverty line” but they have no ideas what this means. They have no experience of it.

“I remember at Christmas last year when I realised I couldn’t buy my son anything as a present, not even a tiny gift, because we didn’t have enough.

“It was his first Christmas with me for a while and I couldn’t get him anything.”

Lots of working parents have the same experience, because they are taxed to the hilt to support people like this.

The mum has also been heavily affected by another much-criticised Government policy: bedroom tax, which taxes homeowners for each bedroom they do not use.

It doesn't 'tax homeowners' at all. I'm one. I'm not taxed.

She said: “I haven’t been able to move out of my three-bedroom house since our split.

“It’s a house we don’t need or want, but I can’t get out because the council only allows me to bid on specific properties.”

Translation: "I won't move out of the area or take a property that isn't 100% perfectly designed for my wants."

“Some days you just don’t want to get out of bed, but you have to keep going. Poverty is an easy hole to fall into, but it’s hard to get out.”

Doesn't sound much like you 'fell in'. Sounds like you've never bothered to climb out.