Line 18: Universal Credit claimants say it is like like 'hell on earth'

Line 18: Universal Credit claimants say it is like like 'hell on earth' As a volunteer at the Jobcentre in Ashton Under Lyne, Charlotte Hughes has seen Universal Credit spell disaster for claimants.

Image: Charlotte Hughes volunteers to help people at the Ashton under Lyne Jobcentre

Charlotte Hughes, along with other local volunteers, has been handing out food parcels outside Ashton Under Lyne Jobcentre for four years.

She tells Sky News about the struggles faced by people as a result of Universal Credit.

In 2013, Ashton Under Lyne Jobcentre became one of the first to trial universal credit along with Oldham and Wigan.

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With a team of other volunteers, I've been helping people outside the Jobcentre, where I've witnessed a strict regime that appears to be much harsher than many other Jobcentres throughout the country.


Almost all of the claimants we speak to have been neglected by society in some way, either through lack of support, lack of education or lack of opportunity. The reasons vary.

Every week we see a series of worried, stressed, undernourished and inadequately dressed people. They don't sleep well and the instability of having no income is punishing.

Many claimants face sanctions from the Jobcentre, for reasons such as missing an appointment.

But often they've done that because they haven't received a letter, and because their legal rights aren't properly explained to them. They can't cope and take themselves off the system.

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Universal credit claimants referred to food banks

I recently spoke to a young man who had been sanctioned for not attending an appointment.

He had the right to appeal, but he wasn't told. And he didn't understand why he had to continue looking for work - for 38 hours a week - while he was getting no money.

He told me he was hungry - and that if he was going to die, he was going to die alone. He was contemplating ending his own life.

Much of the work volunteers do involves helping people fill out long, complicated Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) forms, and the computerised system that the DWP demands people use.

Making a claim for universal credit is near impossible for some, and many would much prefer the old system of writing things down.

When we speak to working people claiming universal credit, they often describe living on it as hell on earth.

Image: Claimants feel the Jobcentre doesn't offer enough support

Most of the people that we speak to are hungry and missing meals is the norm.

With no access to spare money for clothes, many are also dressed inadequately for the weather. We provide food parcels and signpost people to further help.

It takes a lot of courage to ask for, or to accept a food parcel. It's the last stop, the moment where usually all hope has gone.

We also help a lot of people who have failed their ESA and PIP examinations. Far too many people fail the examinations and don't know what to do next.

These are vulnerable people, made even more vulnerable due to a lack of income and food.

We offer solidarity, help, advice and leaflets, because these are things not offered by the jobcentre.

Often advisers can be uncaring - sometimes not - but regardless, claimants are not being offered the advice that they need.

Instead they are handed a piece of paper with telephone numbers on it, assuming that they have the ability make a telephone call. Many don't.

So what does the future hold? Much more of the same I fear. The government's remit appears to be to continue with this system despite its numerous failings.

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We're a poor community anyway - industry here died in the 1980s under Thatcher - and the full impact of universal credit, especially on self-employed people, is yet to be seen.

Alongside Disabled People Against Cuts, myself and the team are campaigning to change the universal credit system.

We see the desperate need to stop and scrap it, and to develop a fairer less punishing system. Pausing and fixing it simply won't do.

The system is failing the poorest and most vulnerable at every level and is broken and beyond fixing. I and the team intend to continue to help people outside Ashton Under Lyne Jobcentre for as long as it takes for the system to change.