This is a story of my hideous experience on the British Universal Credit ...

So this story starts back in 2013, I was working fulltime as a carer for a local nursing home. I had worked in care for around four years at this point, in the UK and in Australia. I was now looking to progress my career and decided to undertake a degree in Occupational Therapy. In order to fund myself through this course I signed up for the part-time course and the NHS funded the course with a bursary each month; it sounded perfect!   

The first year went well I worked part-time and studied part-time. It was towards the end when I started to struggle a bit with money I looked into getting housing benefit, to help me pay my rent. I looked online and it seemed I was entitled to some well needed help. I call the Universal Credit Line, as my area was a trial area for this disastrous new benefit. After waiting in a queue for ages I was told no your not entitled to anything, as I was a part-time student and had time to work; so should do so. I was very disappointed at this result but appreciated that they could not help. I went to Citizens Advice to seek an alternative solution to my now growing financial problems, they advised to call Universal Credit, as they thought I was entitled to help. I once again try the Universal Credit helpline only to be fobbed off again, telling me Citizens Advice did not work for them and did not know what they were talking about; this I became to realise was their common attitude. This battle when on for a while, while online calculators that said I was entitled to help; every time I rang the answer was NO! Now being dyslexic I found reading the online information difficult, hence the reason I called Universal Credit directly often to be told to read the information online and to apply there. I was told it had been designed with Dyslexics in mind and was suitable.   

 As this continued my studies, work and health were all beginning to suffer.   

We are now heading through 2014… I was forced to move back in with my mother due to not being able to work as much due to the course becoming more demanding. I was falling behind on the rent and bills rapidly, causing huge amounts of stress. Thankfully my mother had some savings and was able to allow me to live there for free while I paid of some of my debts. Around this time I had the great experience of meeting my partner and things were looking up for me finally.    

Now my partner was on income support at this time; as she had a young child. This is relevant as whilst I was seeing her, her child turned four meaning she could no longer claim and she had to go onto Universal Credit. I sympathised with her, as I know the lack of any kind of compassion, human decency or help offered by this system. Universal Credit dictates your life, they make it very clear no one is allowed to stay in your house for more than three nights a week, this includes leaving any possessions i.e. clothes, toothbrush. So in regard of these dictatorial rules we obliged, as obviously she need to money to survive and bring up her son.    

Moving on a year or so our relationship was moving forward and we wanted to move in together.    

We called Citizens Advice to find out how we could go about this, they stated they did not know about Universal Credit as the system was complex and difficult to understand and it would be best to call them. This we did; a big big mistake; a few weeks or so later my partner got a letter demanding she when into an appointment at the job centre. As we had things to do in town I went with her and we met in town after her appointment. When we met she was shaking and in tears! It transpired that they had basically threatened her. Now this was in relation to her asking about the logistics of me moving in not long before. They basically said they were watching her and could visit the house anytime day or night. If thy found I had more than the allowed stuff they could stop her funding and potentially take her son away from her. On top of this she was read her rights and made her sign a declaration to this affect. I was fuming but could do nothing as she was now scared to even speak to them about it. At this time she was saying I could not every come to her house again, as she was scared to loose her son. Thankfully I was able to calm her and we adhered to the harsh rules.   

 I mean how can so called public services that supposedly there to help display such an abuse of power it was sickening. I knew that it had been said that they we brutal and appeared to enjoy belittling people but I thought that was just hear say; now I know this to be true. In a way I was glad I had not signed up! I mean how dare these people threaten and bring people to tears.    

Eventually we decided to move in together as our relationship was blooming happy times were head (we thought).    

A few months past and we were beginning to struggle financially; as we were both working we decided to call the Working Tax Credit line and explained our situation, they were surprisingly helpful and said we met the criteria and they would send out the relevant forms. We received the envelope we had been waiting for a few weeks later, expecting details of our payments; finally we could now relax a little and hopefully de-stress. But no the letter told us we had to apply for Universal Credit as our area was a trial area and Working Tax Credit was no longer available. Now if we were in any other part of the UK we would have received a payment of around £1000 a month. During this time we also had a stillbirth and were dealing with the emotional trauma of this. On top of this there was no support for my partner as there was a thirty-six month waiting list. Thankfully for me my university provided counselling for a few weeks this enabled me to hold it together and support my partner though the difficult time. Understandably she had to give up work. During this time finances became extremely tight we managed for a while with me working nearly fulltime and studying at night, much to the decline in my physical and mental health.   We gave in and reluctantly filled in the online forms with no help and braced ourselves for the life ahead under the control of Universal Credit.   

My first meeting at universal credit I had a list of items to prove my identity, fair enough. I gathered these and headed to my local job centre. I handed over my document to the agent and he looked over them. Then he pointed out I had a printout of my bank statement and basically said it should be an original. I pointed out it was printed directly off my online banking and I could not afford five pounds plus to get one print from the bank. The agent said, “well I give you the benefit of the doubt but it could easily be photoshopped”, I was fuming that he would accuse me of faking the documents but held my tongue. This I was later to find was one of the many times I would have to bite my tongue. One such time was during my two weekly calls I was told I had not been active enough in looking for work and writing in my online journal. I pointed out that I was not focusing on looking for work as my priority was my degree and I was working part-time. The response was; doing a degree did not count towards finding a job, bite my tongue. Also during this conversation I was also told the Universal Credit were giving me money and the least I could do was give them some respected, this was really making me angry but still I kept my calm. I was then told to and I quote “write me a little note on your journal before you go to bed each night say what you’ve done for you job search”. I had numerous meetings on top of my busy schedule where I was patronised and belittled, spending over thirty hours a week studying and about twenty hours working in a care home was not enough, I was regularly told this. On top of this we were getting letters from the council tax saying Universal Credit had not calculated things right and now we were to pay more. This resulted in me getting behind with the bills as every time I paid it they sent me a bill for more stating Universal Credit had got it wrong. When I explained my situation I was greeted with the nice response you would expect; council tax is a priority and if you don’t pay it we will send it to a debt collection agency. It seems the whole system work on threats and extortion, by this stage I was ready to break. Depression was setting in I could not cope, but had to hold it together for the sake of my family.   

Time passed the stresses were building we could not afford too socialise and were spending most of the time at home. My partners little boy was finding it difficult understanding why he could not be like his friends and have new toys and not ones from charity shops. Things went from bad to worse financially, by now my partner was on a zero hour contract but still not pulling in much money. I called Universal Credit for support; their response was mind blowing! They actually said spend less, I pointed I could not afford to pay the Council Tax as I had had to quit my job in order to complete my eight week fulltime placement and at weekends was studying an writing my dissertation. They actually said they had not authorised it WOW! Then stated I should still be working as part of my agreement. Physically I could not work, as I was at my placement fulltime five days a week and writing my dissertation an university essays at the weekend, my partner was working when she could but she was really struggling at this point and beginning to shut herself away in our room most of the time. Universal Credit even told me, when I said that I was struggling to pay bills that I should make the bills a priority. I was shocked and replied to this effect; saying putting food on the table to feed my partner and five year old boy, the lady said no bills were the priority. I question this again and she told me to get my priories right, or I could end up in court for not paying my bills. My blood was boiling but I was over a barrel. This is when my relationship started to break; I was breaking with the stress my partner was also stressed as she was at home all day getting more and more depressed with no help for the wonderful NHS. We took it out one on each other, her little boy began picking up on this and this made it even worse.   My partner spent more and more time shut in the bedroom with me downstairs working into the early hours and sleeping on the sofa. I felt like a failure, belittled and completely demoralised by Universal Credit, it all felt hopeless. To the extent when I got my degree I was not even happy. Eventually it broke through it was looking up. I went in and told the universal credit, the response was “with Dyslexia and you got a degree that’s and achievement” WOW!   So jump a couple of months I got a job as I had always said I would. It involved moving; my partner could not handle this as the stress had got too much and the relationship ended. This tore her and me apart we had tried so hard to make it work but the pressure from the lack of finances and Universal Credit’s dehumanisation had had it toll. During this time the council tax had decided that Universal Credit had not informed them of our income properly and added one hundred and twenty seven pounds onto our bill, when I contested this they said it couldn’t be help as the system does not work, even they admitted this! I was in tatters mentally and finically as I had taken out two credit cards to cover cost in the last year, and my relationship was over.  

When I finally started working I though it would be over, but no.  After I had applied for my new council tax I received a bill from the old place for one hundred and eighteen pounds. Obviously I question this as it had been agreed and explained that my now ex partner was taking over the house and was still on universal credit. I was told if I did not pay I was going to court and there was no negotiations I did not have the authority to decide who pay the bill on that house, in essence it was bullying me into pay through a payment plan. The payment plan worked out a lot more and I question this and was told the bill was two hundred and fifteen pounds. Obviously I said no it clearly said one hundred and eighteen, the lady then said I must have read it wrong. I explained I had read it thoroughly and knew what it said, she check the letter from her end and then announced that it was from a year ago when it was not paid. My response was that I had been on universal credit and had paid what I had been asked to. The council tax manager’s response was to send out another bill with this new amount, shocked I said no the bill can’t just be changed like that to which I had the threat of court thrown at me again. Very angry with this I question the manager expressing I felt this was like extortion and if I’d done this to someone I would be liable to charges to that effect, her response was that I was threatening her and she would cut the phone call and not setup the payment plan resulting in me being sent to court! 

Thankfully I am now working and out of that system, but the anxiety has not gone. Every day when I return home I am worrying there is another bill from somewhere demanding moneys on top of the credit cards. The now one hundred and ninety pounds a month council tax bill grew as of yesterday to include another two hundred pounds I have to pay back due to a hardship loan from the universal credit. Currently I have skin problems relating to stress caused by this experience and obviously living in fear of money being demanded from me, on top of this I am now worrying if I ever lost my job I would have to go through the whole system again.    

This system is not fit for purpose and the staff have not been taught properly, in my writings to the head of the DWP Damian Green MP (at the time) I was told it was sufficient and worked well for all concerned. Clearly it is designed by people who have no financial worries have never had to budget in their life.   I feel let down and abused by this whole experience! It’s like I have been bullied and reported it but had been told to stop causing trouble and deal with it. I feel ashamed that I allow my tax money to fund this abusive and frankly unethical treatment of people in need and so should you! It makes me ashamed to live in this country and I hope by reading this account you do to. I was only on this for around six months and this is the effect it had on me. So next time you complain about those benefit scroungers just think to yourself who is a fault here. Admittedly some might be on the scrounge but maybe their just broken and made to feel worthless by your tax payments.   

Just think about it…. And do something!  

I know this is long but UK papers want all my personal details in order to publish it and I don't want to give my details out. So please pass it on to any editors in the UK you know and help those stuck in this hideous program of dehumanisation!