Today’s “Times” has several stories about the iniquity of Universal Credit. The “benefit” that you can’t get until you have had at least 5 weeks with no benefits at all.
This follows on from the story Owl printed yesterday about the 9 year old girl from Devon trying to find a job to help her widowed father and two siblings:
The Times has a story about 150 children in a school who desperately need its breakfast club – some eating 5 bowls of cereal because they are so hungry.
A family with 2 children where the father works 12 hour days who can’t afford to pay for a new fridge freezer or even think about Christmas.
The Times notes:
“a Times investigation into poverty in Britain, which discovered that:
• More families stand to lose than gain under the new universal credit benefit, according to a new analysis.
• In-work poverty is higher than at any time in two decades and rising faster than the rate of employment.
• Malnutrition has tripled over the past decade.
• Mr Duncan Smith threatened to make a Treasury official “eat his balls for breakfast” during a row over universal credit.”
As an EDW reader notes:
“Where is the Tories’ moral compass? The article in yesterday’s EDW reduced me to tears… Fat cat bankers – not one went to jail …”
East Devon Watch 