Communities “will go under” if the Universal Credit roll-out isn’t stopped

"I have nothing in my cupboards, I’ve got no electricity ... I don’t know where to turn”

Communities “will go under” if the Universal Credit roll-out isn’t stopped.

The stark warning comes as all claimants in Everton and West Derby JobCentres were today switched to the controversial benefit.

Everton councillors Jane Corbett and Ian Byrne have already seen the hardship and struggle Universal Credit (UC) has caused people in their ward.

Cllr Byrne said: “I’ve never seen anything like it.

“You have to understand, it’s all hidden – but we have people coming in who have nothing.

“but when you get someone coming in and saying to you, ‘I have nothing in my cupboards, I’ve got no electricity ... I don’t know where to turn’.”

By the end of the year, all new benefits applicants and people whose circumstances change will be moved on to the much-criticised new benefit.

The council predict that as many as 55,000 people in Liverpool will eventually get UC.

Across the city, people have revealed how delays and low payments have left them struggling to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head.

And Everton is one of the areas where it will hit hardest.

The ward is the most deprived on Merseyside, with households earning nearly £18,000 a year less than the national average of £31,310.

Figures from last year show that almost half of Everton’s children are living in poverty, with some youngsters growing up in households who are among the poorest in the country.

Last month, Everton appeared with five other Mersey wards on a list of England’s worst food deserts – neighbourhoods where poverty, poor public transport links, and a lack of big supermarkets combine to severely limit residents’ access to cheap, affordable food,

As well as serving as one of Everton’s councillors, Jane Corbett is Liverpool’s assistant mayor and the mayoral lead on fairness and tackling poverty.

She said: “The problem is the Government won’t give us all the information. We don’t know who everybody is who’s going on to UC.

“That’s why I keep calling it state abuse. What they’re doing is withholding information that is needed to keep people safe.”

She continued: “In Liverpool, we’ve put in now £13m, £9m of which is our own money since 2013/2014, just to keep people afloat.

“So, that’s the Home Needs Awards, and Urgent Needs Awards,”

The Urgent Needs Award covers money for food, essential items for children, essential clothing and help towards fuel costs.

The Home Needs Award provides funding for furniture, new white goods, domestic appliances and essentials such as bedding and crockery.

But you can only receive two awards a year – with the clock ticking from the date your first award is made.

Cllr Corbett said: “As fast as we’re putting money in, the need is increasing – and we’re being cut”.

Despite the opening of Sainsbury’s on Great Homer Street 18 months ago, Everton is still classed as a food desert.

Cllr Byrne said: “We can’t be leaving it to supermarkets, we have to be looking at community shops,

“We’ve lost the 101 bus, which was a crucial link, linking people up to those facilities. With that gone, they do have to go to the corner shop, which is why Everton has made that list.

“That’s no detriment to the corner shops, they’re doing a sterling service, but it shouldn’t be down to them to supply nutritious food.”

A Food Foundation report looked at what percentage of disposable income UK families must spend on food to eat what would be a considered a healthy diet.

In the poorest areas, households where incomes are less than £15,860 a year, families would have to spend 42% of their after-housing budget on food to eat the Government’s recommended diet.

In Everton, where the average income is £13,458, it means a healthy diet is increasingly unaffordable.

Cllr Corbett said: “People have to pay for heating, lighting, council tax, rent and all of that.

“So, people are doing what they can, but then they’re kicking into the cheapest foods which are high in salt, high in fat, and high in sugar.

“Which gives us record obesity levels. And then you look at stress as well. What stress does is it puts you in complete panic mode, so you hang on to the fat and sugar in your system, because your body feels under attack.

“Stress also breaks down the lining of your arteries, so as stuff passes through it gets clogged much easier – and much earlier. And kids are growing up with that.”

Life expectancy in Everton is 79 years for women, and 73 for men, against the national average of 83 for women, and 79 for men.

Among the recommendations made by the Food Foundation to address the UK’s diet imbalance is that UC be reviewed to ensure in-comes are high enough to afford a healthy diet.

Liverpool City Council undertook a Cumulative Impact Assessment using 2016 figures, produced early last year, tracking all 24 changes in welfare reform.

Cllr Corbett said: “Imagine lots of rain, lots of little streams pouring down the mountain ... it’s where they converge that the floods happen, and the Government is refusing to look at where they converge.”

The Assessment is the most detailed picture to date of the impact of welfare changes, showing how the reforms, combined with other austerity measures, have had a devastating impact on communities across the city.

Cllr Corbett said: “Every council is meant to have a local welfare scheme. The Government funded it to start with ... for the first two years, then they said, ‘here’s your budget, you fund it’ – but we’ve been cut by 64%. But we put aside £3m per year as a budget.”

That money funds the Council’s Citizens Support Scheme, the authority’s Urgent Needs Award scheme, which in 2017/2018 made 982 awards totalling more than £189,000 to Everton households.

Cllr Byrne said: “I think it’s important to emphasise that that saves lives.

“Within this office (Dan Carden MP’s County Road Constituency base) we’ve had to direct people towards that on numerous occas-ions – people coming in without electricity, without food.

“We had a woman come in who had three children under the age of 10, contemplating suicide.

“She had a huge array of issues, but had been sanctioned – her mental health problems were not taken in to account.

“She had nothing.

“She hadn’t had a payment since May 10.

“She had been living on tax credits, and had had a food parcel.

“Normally, something as drastic as that, you’d think that’s got to be a one-off – but this is every week.”

In the early 1980s, Everton and Vauxhall were starting to see a population decline, and by 1991 the population had dropped by more than 50%.

Cllr Corbett explained: “Either side of Greatie, you have Everton and Vauxhall; a massive population drop meant all the shops went, the schools were under threat of closure, the health centres were under threat, the transport routes – including the 101 – were under threat.

“Everything started to go. The thing that kept Greatie alive was the market – they have been absolutely brilliant.”

She continued: “It took 25 years to build back the population levels to a sustainable level, to ensure a supermarket was viable. It has made a huge difference.

“I would say it was Great Homer Street Market that kept the area alive in terms of retail at that point. Because you can get everything there, you can get your fruit and veg there, it’s affordable, it’s accessible and everyone knows each other, so a big thank-you to Greatie Market for keeping it going.

“So that was then, spin it forward to 2018, we’ve had a major Sainsbury’s supermarket opening, lots of local people working there.

“But, at the same time, just as we get our heads above water, all the welfare reforms come through – low wages, insecure work, and zero-hour contracts.

“That puts everything under pressure.

“So it’s two steps forward, and one step back, which is also why we need a change of Government, and a change in heart from this current Government, otherwise we are going to drown – we are going to go under.”