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A Universal Credit worker has opened up on her harrowing experiences with the failing new welfare system - including having to inform police that people have committed suicide because of the poverty they are in.

The staff member has spoken of regularly having to talk people down from harming themselves because problems with the benefits system leave them with nothing and with nowhere else to turn.

The extraordinary account was sent to the ECHO by a woman from Merseyside who has been working in a Universal Credit service centre in the Greater Manchester area.

She is one of the first ports of call for desperate claimants who are struggling to get by under the system or who have been sanctioned or forced into a cycle of debt and destitution.

The woman has asked to remain anonymous and only be referred to as B - she said she fears 'people knowing that I am someone who can put people into extreme poverty makes me a target'.

B says she will soon be moving into another role but wanted to highlight the serious failings of Universal Credit and the need for change before she leaves.

She said this is particularly relevant ahead of the General Election as she believes things must change immediately to stop any more suffering.

Her harrowing account begins: "Hi, Welcome to Universal Credit. My name is B and I will be your Case Manager.

"This is how it all starts. And firstly, I’d like to point out that I have to keep myself anonymous for my own safety. As people knowing that I am someone who can put people into extreme poverty makes me a target.

"After my opening message, for the following five weeks, claimants of Universal Credit either run out of food and get behind in their rent payments, or borrow between £300 and £1500 that they must then repay for the next 12 months and put themselves into debt.

"The system doesn’t work."

B describes the system - which has been heavily criticised by charities and social think tanks - as 'cruel, inhumane, and something that penalises the most vulnerable'.

She adds: "Homeowners can’t get help towards mortgage payments (until they’ve gone 9 months with no earnings from work).

"People who have more than two children born after April 2017 don’t get any more child support payments (but if you have 7 children born before April 2017, we will pay support for all of them).

"Most people too ill to work are either found fit for work or fit for some types of work (despite the doctor saying otherwise) and therefore get no extra help.

"People get sanctioned for missing an appointment unless the reason falls into a select few categories

"I wish this was the minority. Unfortunately, it’s the majority."

Campaign groups have long warned that the government's flagship welfare reform forces some people into such desperate states that they are contemplating suicide - and in some cases going through.

And B's experiences suggest this is true.

She said: "I’ve tried to talk more people than I can count down from suicide.

"I’ve had to ring the police several times due to claimants actually committing suicide.

"I’ve had to tell crying mothers who can’t feed or shelter their children that there is nothing we can do to help.

"I’ve had to cancel the disability element for a woman fighting cancer because her prognosis decision had run out.

"I’ve watched domestic abuse survivors go back to their abusers solely because they need the financial support that we can’t give."

B said what makes things worse is that those at the top of the DWP know the system isn't working.

She said: "One of the first things I was told upon starting the job was that I cannot tell people I work for Universal Credit as it is a risk to my safety.

"If people find out I work for this system, I become a target for abuse for putting people in dire situations.

"This will carry on unless someone in a position of power makes drastic social welfare change.

"People commit suicide everyday because a quick death is better than starvation and losing their homes.

"Because what else have they got to live for?

"I cannot answer ‘what other help is there? If you can’t help with food or bills or housing and I cannot feed my children, what can I do?’ because there is nothing."

(Image: PA)

She said she is told to refer people to cash-strapped local councils for help, knowing that they cannot help and will send people right back.

She added: "I am told to tell them to go to a food bank, knowing that they can only get so much food, and once it's gone, it’s gone.

"We need better social welfare. It is putting the majority into poverty and debt."

She said she struggles with her own feelings about herself because of the work she has been doing.

She added: "I struggle a lot with feeling sorry for myself for having to put people in this situation.

"It’s stressful, mentally and emotionally draining, and the worst thing I feel I can do to someone.

"I always wanted my career to be in helping people.

"I want to do good in the world, to be a change that the world needs. I fell for the lie with Universal Credit - that this new benefit is a blessing to social welfare, and supports everyone who needs it.

"I could count the number of times I have actually helped someone on one hand.

"And as much as I feel sorry for myself for what the job does to me, it will never be anything like what the job does to claimants.

"I get to have a roof over my head, go home knowing that I can eat, wake up knowing I am safe, and life is worth living.

"Everybody should have this. It is a basic human right.

"Thankfully, I am soon to be getting out of this job, and into something that will be helping people. But that leaves room for someone else to enter this job, and be inflicting the same poverty onto people that I was.

"Things need to change."

Responding to the testimony, a DWP spokesman said: “Universal Credit provides a safety net for people who are unemployed or on low wages with more than 2.6 million people being supported.

“Advances are available to help people access money quickly with safeguards in place to ensure repayments are affordable and spread over a lengthy period of time.”