A single mum relying on Universal Credit was driven into prostitution to make a swift £30.
Julie, from Merseyside, turned to prostitution after waiting eight weeks for her first payment from the questionable new benefits policy, but she felt really discouraged and ashamed following the exchange but was desperate to stay afloat.
Julie who asked for her real name not to be used said that she was embarrassed to admit it but that she slept with a guy for money, and it was something she never ever imagined she would ever be able to do, and that she really didn’t believe it was in her as a person.
She is so disappointed in herself and ashamed of herself. She had to use food banks and had never been in that position in her life, and she was actually struggling, but some women have now taken to the red light district for the first time as a direct consequence of Universal Credit.
Now women feel compelled to sell their bodies after getting trapped in the poverty net, yet this woman has no criminal history and she doesn’t take drugs, she’s never stolen anything in her life, but she lost her job of 10 years and had nothing to live on.
She claimed benefits but didn’t get a penny because she had to wait over eight weeks, yet Universal Credit simply told her to be patient, but being patient isn’t going to feed her child or pay her mortgage.
A few months ago she’d only ever slept with seven men and now she’s seeing perverts every night and she despises it but she has to pay her bills and keep her home. This is her secret because her partner thinks she works in a bar and it’s a shameful secret to keep.
A mum-of-two, aged 29, further claimed a reduction in benefit forced her on to the streets. Universal Credit took £72 a week off her, her children are nine and one and she needs to get school uniform for her eldest.
She didn’t have a great childhood and she doesn’t want her children to suffer as she did, but all these things have to be paid for.
Her first punter was very sweet and now she can make £450 a night and she’s good at it. She’s been out in the snow trembling but she made £1,000 that night because they felt sorry for her.
Of course, on Universal Credit as soon as you’ve concluded and entered your application, you can get an advanced payment of any sum of your choice, up to your whole benefit award, but this advance is then subtracted from subsequent payments, decreasing further the already small amount of money people get.
And if there’s an option for an advance, the question is, why is there a five-week delay in the first place? Universal Credit is cruel by design, and this cruelty is finally being exposed, and not a minute too soon because Universal Credit is inhumanely brutal, beyond evil, and it’s completely stupid and a destructive mess that’s taking lives.
Universal Credit is a blemish on this country’s conscience and the system needs to be abandoned now before even more people are plunged into abject destitution, and this is not tolerable in the 21st century. Charles Dickens must be turning in his grave.
