Homeless, jobless and living in fear (Picture: Getty)

It’s been nearly two years since I claimed Universal Credit. I had the misfortune of living in a trial area, where the benefit was tested before it was rolled out to the rest of the UK.

As I watched my life get destroyed, was evicted and left penniless under the ‘flagship welfare reform programme’, I prayed that I was one of few feeling the true horrors that such a scheme can inflict on people.

People are being 'left in real hardship' because of botched Universal Credit rollout

But, yesterday’s report from the National Audit Office (NAO) clearly shows that I was not the only one suffering.

As more people were moved to Universal Credit, I watched news reports of people freezing to death in homes they couldn’t afford to heat and spoke to people who had faced rent arrears and threats of eviction due to delays in payments and errors with processing claims.




I found it hard to believe when MPs stood up in the House of Commons and spoke of how there were only a small number of issues with Universal Credit and that these were being tackled. I questioned how they could be so blind to the pain people were dealing with.

Were they honestly not aware of what was happening?

Did they not want to look at the damage being caused?

Did it seem like too much effort to roll back the scheme?

All I know is that we finally have an official report detailing Universal Credit’s failures.

‘The Government’s introduction of Universal Credit has been one long catalogue of delay with huge impact on people’s lives,’ said MP Meg Hillier, chair of the public accounts committee, in an official statement.

This single sentence speaks volumes to those who have experienced the neglect that Universal Credit deals its claimants.

Although it has been 23 months, it feels like yesterday that I listened in disbelief and horror as an advisor told me that, months after I’d filed a claim for Universal Credit, my application had been rejected because their system didn’t have my current address on file – despite the fact I’d provided it.

I remember the numb pain I felt in the pit of my stomach as I opened my bedroom door to my landlord and he told me that he was going to evict me, because I wasn’t able to pay my rent.

I remember the fear and shame I felt every time I had to climb over a ticket barrier on the London Underground because my Oyster didn’t have enough money on it.

I remember counting 20p coins to buy a loaf of bread, then rationing it out for weeks and picking mould off the slices because I couldn’t afford to buy anything more.

I remember sleeping on a mattress blackened with filth in a stranger’s bedsit, because I had nowhere else to go after my landlord finally kicked me out.

I remember the horror that spiked in my stomach whenever this stranger, my rapist, unlocked the door and thumped a box of condoms down on the counter, because I knew what was coming.

I remember preparing myself for the pain of being forced into sex against my will.



I remember stealing food so I wouldn’t starve, and part of me was hoping I’d be caught and sent to jail, because at least then I wouldn’t have to worry about food, money, staying warm, and being raped.

When I first started writing about Universal Credit, I was tweeted stories from people who had endured similar levels of pain.

‘Stealing to survive is a reality’, one of them said. ‘Solidarity,’ I replied, as did others.

It became the word we used to express our shared understanding of what we were going through.

We were ordinary, hard-working people who had fallen into unlucky circumstances, and been kicked when we were already down.

Our common interest was to survive under a scheme that felt as if it was designed to make our lives more difficult, and to support those who reached out for help. Because we knew that Universal Credit would not help us.

The people who did were complete strangers, those who provided me with the tools I needed to get my life back on track; a home, toiletries, food and someone to talk to.

I only got these resources after I’d suffered at the hands of a government resource that claims to provide support to those who need it.

The hardest reality I had to face as a Universal Credit claimant was being dealt the response that the system was working correctly and that, in fact, I wasn’t working hard enough.

The 40 job applications a week that I was putting in, the numerous interviews I was being rejected from for simply not being the right fit at the right time, it was all my fault, because I wasn’t working hard enough.


As a whole, we felt we were somehow to blame for the circumstances that had led to our unemployment, and it was our fault if we were neglected by Universal Credit.

We felt too scared to call out the system for f***ing us up, for fear it’d f*** us up more and take away the meager allowance dribbled out to us when they felt like it.

What spoke to me most was when Hillier said ‘DWP needs to wake up and understand what is going so wrong before future claimants share a similar fate.’

This is what I had hoped for, as I was starving, homeless and penniless after being abused by Universal Credit.

Will the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) actually wake up and admit they could be the ones at fault after this report, or will it be dismissed, with countless more lives to be destroyed?

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