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A single mum struggling to survive on Universal Credit has been forced to sleep with men for as little as £10 in order to feed her young son, it is claimed.

Charlotte claims she performs sexual favours on up to 15 men a month - making about £200 a week - after being left feeling abandoned by the government.

Some of the 27-year-old's clients visit her home in south London while her seven-year-old son is at school, she says.

Charlotte, a former housekeeper who lives on an estate, said she is so destitute that she will see clients on Christmas Day as she hides the truth from her boy.

Have you been affected by Universal Credit? Email webnews@mirror.co.uk.

(Image: Getty)

She said: “I haven’t got a choice. I’ll be doing it over Christmas too - what am I meant to do?"

Charlotte told the Sun her boy wears old and torn clothes, and knows she is struggling financially, so he hasn't asked for a single Christmas gift.

She said: "At times I have had to sleep with men for some change - just £10 or £20 so I can buy some food in Iceland, just so my son doesn’t go hungry."

She added: “I’ve had to sell the toys he has just to charge the electric and the gas."

(Image: Getty)

Charlotte said she couldn't afford childcare after she had her son, so she was forced to give up her job.

She said she moved onto Universal Credit in January this year when she moved house, but her first payment didn't arrive for five weeks.

Since then, she said, she has fallen £500 behind on her rent and been threatened with eviction.

Charlotte is left with just £467-a-month in Universal Credit and receives no financial support from her son's father.

Charlotte has hit out at the government, saying she feels abandoned and that the only people she can trust are her clients.

(Image: Getty)

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A number of women have told how they have turned to prostitution to pay for food or heating bills.

Julie, 30, told the BBC that she was left "very disappointed" and “ashamed” after she was forced to sleep with a man for money during an eight-week wait for a Universal Credit payment.

She added: "It's something I never ever thought I would be ever capable of doing.”

Last month, a Daily Mirror investigation into Britain's first "managed" red light zone revealed desperate women felt forced to sell their bodies after getting caught in a poverty trap.

In October, MP for Birkenhead Frank Field told MPs "some women have taken to the red light district for the first time" as a direct result of Universal Credit.

The former Labour minister claimed women in his constituency are being forced into prostitution by cash shortages because of recent welfare reforms.

A DWP spokeswoman said: “We’re committed to ensuring people can get help when they need it most – advance payments and budgeting support are available and rent can be paid directly to the landlord where necessary.”