Politics

They are forever messing up my Universal Credit: My Wigan Pier Story


Kiran Heir, 30, relies on help from her neighbours so she can pay the rent and bills. She tells Maryam Qaiser, about her first visit to Coventry Food Bank.

Universal Credit are forever messing my benefits up. Last month instead of paying me the usual payment of £950 they have only paid just over £400, which means I don’t have any money for food.

This is the first time I’ve had to use a food bank, so my two-year-old son and I can eat.


 

My neighbours are incredibly helpful when Universal Credit messes my payments up.

Some months I am left with just £350, after rent, bills and food and for somebody that is used to working, £350 to live on is not enough.

Before I had my son I worked in office jobs. Now my son is almost ready to start nursery I am hoping to go back to work, but it is not easy.

 

I have applied for jobs, but I’ve not heard back from anyone yet, even though I have a lot of experience in office-related jobs.

Back in the day, you could apply for a job and you would hear back the next day. I never had any difficulty finding a job before.

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We are retracing the journey George Orwell made in his book, The Road to Wigan Pier , to tell modern stories of working and unemployed poverty.

They’ll appear in a regular series in the Daily Mirror newspaper and here, on our special anniversary website .





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