Life on Universal Credit: ‘One month I got £342, then zero, then £34 – I don’t know why’ Emily Masters says there is a stigma attached to being a young person on Universal Credit

In a new series, i reveals how the controversial Universal Credit system is affecting the lives of people up and down the UK through emotional and financial stress.

One month Emily Masters’ Universal Credit payment was £438. The next month it was £342. Then it dropped to zero.

Two months later it climbed marginally to £34. In August it was £537.

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This has been Emily’s life for the last 10 months. She signed on to Universal Credit in February 2018 after losing her job and since then she has rarely received the same amount of money in any two months.

And she has no idea why. The 25-year-old, who lives in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, has repeatedly tried to ask the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) why her monthly payment fluctuates so drastically but has only been told the issue will be looked at.

She is one of thousands of people who are struggling with the controversial system, which rolls six benefits into one monthly payment. Others have reported Universal Credit errors that have left them waiting weeks for their payment or only getting a fraction of what they should, leaving them without enough money to get by.

‘Nothing got resolved’

Emily appears despondent about her situation. “The amount of errors I have encountered with the Universal Credit system…,” she says, trailing off before finishing the sentence.

“One month I got paid absolutely nothing because they had on record I had worked apparently. So they didn’t pay me anything. I wasn’t working,” she says categorically. “I did raise it. Nothing got resolved.”

‘They say jump, you say how high’

“It’s incompletely inconsistent. I chase it up with them every single month. They say they’ll look into it, they’ll look into it, they’ll look into it, put a note on your [online] journal, put a note on your journal. Every single time I put a note on this journal system.”

The DWP says Emily’s payments are accurate and change to reflect income from work she receives. But she refutes this.

“They won’t explain to me why it’s fluctuating. They say it’s because I’ve earned money, because I’ve done this and that. I haven’t earned any money. It’s still continuing,” says Emily.

As a result she is financially dependent on her boyfriend, a situation which she hates.

She feels no control over her life, let alone her finances. “You feel like you’re not capable of doing anything. They say jump, you say how high. The system is unfair, it’s completely unfair.”

‘Most difficult process’

Emily lost her job at a pub in Gloucestershire, where she was living, in January 2018. The next month she signed on to Universal Credit, which she calls “the most difficult process I have tried to do in my life”.

“There are no help links online, there is no proper information to help you answer the questions correctly. If you phone up the Jobcentre you’re on hold for ages; they don’t know the questions, they don’t know the answers, they don’t have a clue what they’re doing.”

She eventually managed to complete her application but struggled to make ends meet with her fluctuating payments.

Her problems worsened when she left Gloucestershire due to issues with her flat. She moved to live with her boyfriend in Bognor Regis but her housing benefit has been completely cut from her Universal Credit because the DWP consider their caravan to be non-standard housing.

But it is all Emily could find at short notice and all the pair can afford. “We still have rent and bills to pay. Just because it’s a caravan doesn’t mean it’s not a house.

“You get people in flats and bedsits with one room and they still pay housing benefits – why not help with a caravan? Is it because we don’t deserve housing benefit?”

‘DWP told me to get rid of my dog’

Emily believes Universal Credit is not helping people like her get back into work. Struggling with the system is affecting her mental health, meaning she cannot work, and her low monthly payments means she cannot find a job even if she could work.

“It makes you feel awful. Some days I really don’t want to do anything. I’m so used to being let down.

“They create situations where there is no way you can come back from. If I had several job interviews this month, which unfortunately I don’t because of my mental health, I’ve only been paid £235. That is gone in the space of two days. I’ve paid the electric, gas, food and I’ve got my dog insurance.”

She claims the DWP has told her to get rid of her pet as a “solution”.

“He’s a little lifeline for me. I know that sounds really silly because he’s an animal but he’s there for me all the time and he’s reliable.

“I got the dog initially to get me out of the house when I stopped working. It made me quite depressed. It got me out of the house, it started to get me socialising again, getting to know more people. It got my face out there so I felt more comfortable going to apply for jobs.

“If I got rid of the dog I would be in a worse off situation than I’m in now. My mental health would just deteriorate.”

Universal Credit stigma

Emily is keen to make the public aware of how punitive Universal Credit can be for people in their twenties and early thirties. She believes there is a stigma attached to receiving benefits at a young age and that it puts off future employers.

“A lot of my friends and I all feel very criticised, judged. ‘Not another millennial going into the Jobcentre. Typical, they can’t be bothered to do anything.’ It puts a stigma on us.

“I would say I’m quite a hardworking person and I hate not having a job. A lot of my friends are the same. But there is hardly any work. When you’ve got 300 to 400 hundred people looking at the same area for jobs, it’s impossible. It makes it worse when they see you’re on benefits. They don’t want to hire you because of the stigma of a person aged 25-35 being on benefits as lazy.”

A DWP spokesperson said: “The amount people get on Universal Credit changes depending on how much they earn each month – in months where people earn less they get more support. For every pound earned above the threshold, Universal Credit reduces by 63p, ensuring it always pays to be in work. “We have just announced we will be increasing the amount people on Universal Credit can earn by £1,000 before their payment starts being reduced.”

If you would like to share your experience about life on Universal Credit, email serina.sandhu@inews.co.uk

Read more in our Life On Universal Credit series.