BY HAJERA BLAGG DISCREDIT


Hunger pangs – Unite


Community Norwich


feeding kids this summer


families claiming Universal Credit going hungry during the holidays because they are not able to receive free school meals.


Unite Community set up a number of holiday schemes this year, and like longer running projects in Devon and Norwich have become massively popular.


But Unite believes such projects, though critical in offering solidarity to struggling families, can only be part of the solution as the situation becomes increasingly dire.


Although Universal Credit will not be fully rolled out until 2023, each year the number of claimants doubles. And while the government claims there will be a ‘managed migration’ of people onto UC, more and more people are being forced to sign on and drop their legacy benefits if they’ve experienced any change in circumstances – even something as


innocuous as a change in mobile number.


This under-the-radar rollout of Universal Credit has seen the number of claimants surge from 1m in 2018 to 2.3m now. Shockingly, over a third of these are in employment, belying the notion that work always pays.


Unite head of community Liane Groves said that Unite’s research again highlights the need to scrap Universal Credit entirely.


“Universal Credit is causing misery and suffering as the survey results clearly show,” she said. “Hundreds of thousands of children in the UK are not being fed properly because their parents don’t have the money to make ends meet. Unite is demanding that social security payments are sufficient to provide families with enough money to buy healthy food for their children.”


25 uniteWORKS Autumn 2019 “


Hundreds of thousands of children in the UK are not being fed properly because their parents don’t have the money to make ends meet. Unite is demanding that social security payments are sufficient to provide families with enough money to buy healthy food for their children


Liane Groves


Head of Unite Community


” Find out more HERE


Peter Everard Smith


Worried UC will affect you?


Talk to your union rep and employer now;


employers have a duty to provide info on wages each month so the DWP can calculate UC payments. They must do this in time or payments can be affected;


you may need to ask for more hours, or look at how often they are paid. Weekly, fortnightly paid workers can end up out of pocket. Get help from your rep


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