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A mum-of-two spent days without food to make sure her children were fed as she tackled a lengthy wait for her first Universal Credit payment.

Charlotte fled a life of abuse and was left out of work after she was diagnosed with a serious mental health condition.

The 30-year-old mum faced an anxious five-week wait for the benefit while she was living in her three-bedroom flat - reports the Mirror .

She was forced to live off £5-a-day child benefit, with the majority of it being used to ensure that her children Courtney, eight, and Nathaniel James, six, didn’t go hungry and cold.

Charlotte also had to find money to pay for bedroom tax - meaning that there was very little for the three to live on.

“I felt like I was living in a third world country, I had so little money”, said Charlotte.

“I had to make tough choices between paying to heat the flat, or buying food for the kids.

“I’d get down to my last few pence and have nowhere to turn. Sometimes I’d go without food to make sure the kids ate – they always came first.

“A lot of people are just one crisis away from living below the breadline.

“We were OK before I had to move. The flat in Cambridge had three bedrooms, and I was told my children should be sharing a room, so had to pay an extra £75 in bedroom tax.

"I had to take a loan out to pay for food for Christmas and to pay my rent and bills. I got behind on rent while waiting for my first Universal Credit payment. We had nothing. It was hell.”

Little Courtney had been forced to understand the meaning of money – and how it feels to live without it.

Hungry and cold, instead of enjoying a carefree childhood she worried about how her family would survive living in Cambridge - one of the most expensive cities in the UK.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

She says: “Sometimes we slept in our coats because we couldn’t afford the heating. Mum sometimes didn’t have any dinner so me and my brother could eat ours. Or we would go to the foodbank to get food.

“It was scary sometimes because I was worrying about money. It would worry me at school, and I wanted to make it better for my mum.”

That first time at the foodbank , hungry and confused, little Courtney didn’t even know what the place was.

She says: “I thought a foodbank is where food came out of a bank – like a hole in the wall where money comes out, but with food in it. It was really weird being there – I didn’t like it.

"I can’t always get what I want to eat, because mum doesn’t have that kind of money. But that day I got Pringles and biscuits. I went back there a few times with my mum.”

Courtney is one of the 4.1 million children growing up in poverty in the UK, where one in three youngsters are living below the breadline.

Child poverty will surge to a 60-year high if the Conservatives remain in power, an influential think-tank says.

And the country’s biggest foodbank charity, the Trussell Trust, is bracing itself for its busiest December ever, after distributing 78,536 emergency food parcels to children last Christmas.

Courtney and her family were eventually forced to move to Hull, where Charlotte was able to save more than £200-a-month in rent – vital money she needed for food and bills .

Courtney adds: “Mum didn’t have much money when we lived in Cambridge, so she was stressed and worried. I would look after her and bring her cups of tea and remind her to take her medication.

"When I grow up, I want to be a solicitor so I can make lots of money to buy a big house that me and my mum and my brother will live together.

“I’ll get all my favourite food – sausages and pizza.”

Channel 4 spent a year with the family for documentary Growing Up Poor: Britain’s Breadline Kids.

(Image: Daily Record)

They also followed Danielle, a teenager struggling to study for her GCSEs while living in a cramped bedsit with her mum Jodi and sister.

Jodi also faced a wait for Universal Credit, and some days could not afford to pay for electricity, forcing Danielle to revise by candlelight.

Danielle, 15, said: “Living in the bedsit was really tough. It was hard living in one room when I needed to revise, and I wanted to do so well at my GCSEs.

"I sometimes felt like I wanted to end things, but I’d never do that, because of my family. Life would have been very different if there was more help for families like mine.”

Dispatches: Growing Up Poor: Britain’s Breadline Kids, airs on December 2 on Channel 4 at 10pm.