Hundreds take to the streets with a defiant message: Scrap universal credit

Hundreds take to the streets with a defiant message: Scrap universal credit.

ACTIVISTS mobilised across the country on Saturday for a day of action against the government’s hated universal credit benefits system.

More than 90 events were staged and hundreds of people were informed of the disastrous effects of universal credit, including the five-week wait before any benefit is paid.

The Stop Universal Credit day of action aimed to send a message to the Tory government that its flagship new system cannot be fixed and must be scrapped, in line with Labour policy.

General union Unite said many members of the public had come forward with their own stories of debt, rent arrears and being unable to buy presents for their children this Christmas.

At many events Unite members sang rewritten carols, with words inspired by the poverty caused by universal credit, from a songbook produced by the union.

Unite Community head Liane Groves said: “It was a really successful day. We were getting feedback from members of the public and many of them were telling us of their own experiences which were quite heartbreaking.

“The worst is making people wait for five weeks before they receive any money at all.

“The government thinks that when someone loses their job they receive a month’s pay to live on. But many people are on zero-hours contracts and receive nothing.

“The system offers them an advance payment to live on, but that means they go straight into debt and the government claws back that money in the first six months.

“Low-paid people do not have a cushion to fall back on and by the time they get their first universal credit payment, they are six weeks behind with their rent. So how do you catch up?

“Also universal credit pays out a lump sum every month: low-paid workers are not paid monthly, they have to budget. The government has given £50 million to Citizens Advice Bureaus to tell people how to budget: they are trying to teach the poor how to be poor.”

She said Unite would continue to press the government into halting the roll-out of universal credit.