Life on Universal Credit at Christmas: I have to save sugar packets from cafes to put in my daughter’s stocking A mother explains how she is trying to make Christmas special for her disabled daughter despite having to sell her belongings

In a new series, i reveals how the controversial Universal Credit system is affecting the lives of people up and down the UK through emotional and financial stress. This week, a claimant who wishes to remain anonymous has written about Christmas anld Universal Credit.

I cannot take my daughter to see the lights. There will be no ice-skating or pantomimes. No events.

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Christmas will be very limited for my family this year.

I have been making decorations from old bottles and food containers I’ve found. I hope to get a tree branch to use as the Christmas tree.

For my daughter’s stocking I have some free sugar packets from a cafe and sweets people have given to me. I’ve kept things like shampoo, pens and little items from charity shops, too. I have made tiny books for my daughter.

I hope our little fairy lights last the season before the batteries die. Batteries are expensive.

Making my own crackers

I’m going to make my own Christmas crackers and put free items I got from freebie sites such as samples of face cream and tiny bottles of perfume inside. My landlady gave me used wrapping paper and old toilet rolls which I will use to make the crackers.

I have a few things for the Christmas meal such as a box of tasty cheese crackers that a lady gave me because she doesn’t like them, so that was lucky for us.

We had to leave everything behind when we moved town to get more support for my disabled daughter. I couldn’t afford a removal van or to post our belongings. We only came with a suitcase of clothes and school stuff.

Sadly we had to leave our two lovely cats because I could not afford to feed them or pay the vet’s bills. Those cats were our comfort. Now we are even more lonely and isolated. The cats were important to me when my depression was bad. I would cuddle them to feel better. When kids bullied my daughter about her disability she got comfort from her cat. This will be our first Christmas without a pet. Thank you Universal Credit for the extra sadness and pain and hurt.

Thankfully, I have a small joint of gammon I found in the reduced section at the supermarket. I was going to keep it for Boxing Day but will have to use it for Christmas Day now. It’s in my friend’s freezer at the moment because I had to get rid of everything including furniture and white goods.

Cooking with an iron

I will have to cook the Christmas dinner on my clothes iron, which heats up a saucepan, bit by bit. I hope I can borrow a saucepan from someone or an old baking tray.

Thankfully I have some candles so I will be able to boil up some water for coffee.

We don’t have a TV, TV licence or internet so hopefully someone will lend us a television and some DVDs for Christmas.

I hope we can afford heating because I do not want us spending Christmas in bed.

We will be sitting on the floor because I cannot afford a sofa.

Christmas bonus

I was hoping for a Christmas bonus but I’ve found out that Universal Credit claimants don’t get one. That’s a big blow for me. I was hoping to use the £10 to get a Christmas pudding, slices of turkey and a tin of sweets but now that treat might not happen. I just have to hope someone gives us a tin of sweets and a box of biscuits. That £10 bonus meant a lot to me and my kid but they’ve taken it away from us.

It’s very mean and horrible. Yes we could have saved up each week but I had to pay nearly £1,000 a month for emergency accommodation this year and I had to go overdrawn at the bank to keep a roof over our heads. I used up loose change to buy food.

My daughter goes to school with no breakfast and doesn’t have lunch there, either. She comes home to cheap, reduced sandwiches. I used to go to cafes to pick up sugar and food left on other people’s plates.

When my daughter needed art stuff for school or to use the library printer for homework, inside I would be crying. Paying for printing means I go without a meal.

I feel broken, undermined, useless and destroyed.

My Christmas wish

My Christmas wish this year is for someone to kindly pay for us to have an allotment so that I can grow vegetables and fruit. My daughter wishes to have a meal deal every day. It makes me sad that she wishes for food over gadgets – she’s a child and should be thinking of nice, girly things instead.

Thankfully I have got her a secondhand Android phone so that she can use the wi-fi at the library or cafe or at a friend’s house. I also have a phone. It costs me £10 a month to run but I need it for emergencies and a little bit of social activity. When I am isolated and inside for weeks and weeks, my phone links me to friends.

I look out of the window and envy people with cars who are going out, going to the cinema, affording hair cuts and new clothes while I struggle to get food every day. I envy seeing people getting their food shop and now getting Christmas treats.

I sometimes feel like stealing food from my friends’ cupboards and this hurts my heart. Soon I’ll lose friends because they will see me as always begging and scrounging. I tell them, “No Christmas card, instead, get us cheap tin of baked beans or cheap tin of vegetables or a jar jam.”

One way or another I am going to make this Christmas happen for my daughter. We might have to go to The Salvation Army again on Christmas Day to help serve the elderly. In exchange we get a free Christmas dinner.

The Department for Work and Pensions said: “The majority of people are comfortable managing their money but for those who struggle our Jobcentre staff are able to offer budgeting support. We have also recently agreed a partnership with Citizens Advice to help vulnerable people make their benefit claims. “Universal Credit claimants have never received a one-off December payment, but many disabled people on Universal Credit will be better off on average by £100 month than when they received ESA.”

If you would like to help people on Universal Credit, please contact Crisis or The Trussell Trust

If you would like to share your experience about life on Universal Credit, email serina.sandhu@inews.co.uk

Read more in our Life On Universal Credit series.