CAMPAIGN Universal Dis-credit ‘I’ve thought


about killing myself’


Universal Credit wrecks lives – we meet two members pushed to the very brink


When Unite Community member Pat’s* husband Peter* died, she refused to leave his side for 17 hours as she held his hand for the last time.


As his full-time carer for over four years – she was devastated when Peter succumbed to cancer and a number of other health problems.


But Pat would not be given time nor space to grieve – four days later, she’d be plunged into a fight for her very survival.


After Peter’s death, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) was notified of Pat’s change in circumstances. Before she was even given the chance to bury her husband, Pat was summoned to the local job centre to sign on to Universal Credit – and told she must soon start looking for work.


“Not only is Pat grieving and heartbroken, but she is also disabled. She has fibromyalgia. She cannot read or write; she’s computer illiterate and attended a special needs school,” Susan*, a Unite Community member, noted.


For the DWP though, no suffering can be


taken at face value – Pat, so shattered by grief she can hardly think straight, is being asked to search for work for 35 hours each week, using a computer she cannot operate, filling out forms she cannot read.


If she is ill or disabled, she must prove it. With Susan assisting her, Pat attended a meeting at the Job Centre. She brought with her a doctor’s sick note proving that she was not at present fit for work.


But they were told by a work coach “to have a cup of tea at a caff across the street and come back later for a second a meeting, where her case would be discussed,” Susan recounted. On their return Pat tried to submit the evidence explaining her situation, but they were refused re-entry, told “they should not have left in the first place” and “forced to leave.”


Even though her Carer’s Allowance is meant to continue eight weeks after her partner’s death, once she applied for Universal Credit, the DWP suddenly cut the allowance. Her circumstances have changed from dire to desperate.


Now that she potentially faces a five-week waiting period for her first Universal


28 uniteWORKS Autumn 2019


Credit payment, and without Carer’s Allowance or any other income, she doesn’t have money for rent or food.


“I’m afraid – afraid I’ll lose my home; I’m afraid I’ll lose everything,” she says. “I can’t stop crying. I cry all the time every day. I feel sick all the time. “I’ve thought about killing myself,” she admits.


But Pat is not alone. A disabled Unite health care worker, Emma*, who survived marital rape and psychological coercion, has spoken out about the inhuman way domestic abuse victims and other vulnerable people are treated under Universal Credit.


After divorcing her abuser, Emma was forced to switch from working tax-credits to Universal Credit, leaving her with mounting debt and at crisis point – even though officials were informed of her situation.


Emma, who has suffered with a serious autoimmune disease since childhood and limited under the instructions of occupational health to working 24 hours a week, said, “Over years, I was repeatedly raped, controlled and psychologically


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