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A mum-of-two has told how she was unable to pay her rent and took on £900 in debt as delays in her Universal Credit payments forced her into a desperate situation.

Penelope Goodfellow described an "awful" ordeal as she had to choose between gas and electricity and rely on handouts from foodbanks to feed her children.

For half a year the mum and her children - Louie, 15 and Marnie, 17 - had to survive on her part-time wage of less than £200 a month.

Mrs Goodfellow, a full-time carer, also discovered that her child benefit payments were going to her former partner, who has nothing to do with her children.

After being contacted by the Grimsby Telegraph, the Department For Work and Pensions has promised that her payments will now arrive on time - and it was also discovered that she was owed a further £600.

(Image: Grimsby Telegraph)

Mrs Goodfellow, of Grimsby, had been receiving Universal Credit while she was living with an ex-partner who was also on the system, which meant that their payments were paid to both of them in one single sum that went into her former partner's account.

But when they split up in December last year, she was told she no longer qualified for it and would have to sign-up for other benefits before eventually re-enrolling for Universal Credit.

That meant she had to survive on a part-time wage of less than £200 a month.

The mum is a full-time carer for her daughter who is in the process of recovering from a long-term illness and also suffers from post traumatic stress disorder

She said: "It didn't really make much sense to me at the time, because I thought that once you were on Universal Credit you could never be taken off it again, but I just wanted to get my payments so I went along with everything.

(Image: Grimsby Telegraph)

"After applying for all these new benefits I had waited about five or six weeks only to be told that I shouldn't be applying for them and I should be on Universal Credit, meaning that I had to re-apply for that again and wait another six weeks before I got another payment.

"This meant that from December to the beginning of March, I was left with nothing except the wages from my part-time job to feed me and my children, as well as pay the rent and provide heating and electricity.

"It was horrendous, I would spend hours on the phone trying to get some answers and when I went to other agencies to ask for help nobody seemed educated on what Universal Credit actually means and it felt like I was teaching them rather than them giving me advice.

"I am not some benefit scrounger who has lived their life on the dole, I work whenever I can, but it seems to me that this system hasn't been properly thought through and implemented, nobody seems to know what is going on and how to help you."

However once confirmed onto Universal Credit, which only happened following an intervention from local MP Melanie Onn, the problems still persisted for Mrs Goodfellow, as month after month she found that none of her payments actually went into her account.

To make matters worse, she later discovered that the child benefit payments she was meant to receive as part of the service actually went to her former partner, who has nothing to do with her children.

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As a result of all this she was left in £900 of debt as she was no longer able to pay her rent to Shoreline - along with more than three quarters of its other Universal Credit tenants. She also had to spend the winter months deciding who to feed first and if she should pay for gas or electricity.

She said: "It really puts you in a horrible position, there were many times where I had to reach out to foodbanks in order to put food on the table, and when it came to my bills I would have to pay my rent first, and then choose between gas or electric, so we never had any heating last winter as I would pick electricity over gas so that we could have warm water.

"It is almost like the system is set up to discourage you from trying to claim, and if that is the case then it is working.

"If it wasn't for the help and support of my family and friends I really do not know what I would have done.

"If my children's father wasn't so helpful then I wouldn't have been able to give them anything at all for Christmas which would have utterly broken my heart, and I am still in debt to him today as he has given me financial assistance throughout it all.

A DWP spokesperson said: "We have been in touch with Mrs Goodfellow to apologise for the difficulties she experienced at the start of her claim, and to reassure her that further Universal Credit payments will continue to be paid on time."