Universal Credit in Sheffield a year on: foodbanks even busier than they feared

A year after Universal Credit was rolled out in Sheffield, foodbanks tell us it's hit vulnerable people even harder than they thought it would.

This week marks twelve months since the new welfare system was first introduced in the city - it combines a number of old benefits into one single payment.

But it's been marred with controversy, with delays in payments and claims vulnerable people like the disabled are worse off now than they were before.

Sheffied mum Nicola Radford works part time and was caring for her mum when she applied for Universal Credit.

She thinks she around £600 a month poorer now under the new system:

"It took them five and a half weeks to tell me that I would be entitled to £41 a month. We've ended up in debt because the money is just not there. You'd have to rob a bank because there is no financial support.

"You can't support a family. You're trying to cut maybe down £3 gas or £3 electric just to make a meal. It is hard.

"Universal Credit is not there to help people. It's designed for you to live on, as I got told, £1 a day for a family of three. That's not doable. In the day and age we live in, that is just not doable."

When the system was first rolled out in Sheffield, foodbanks told us they were bracing for a surge in demand as people struggled, after similar rises elsewhere in the country.

A year on and they say it's been even worse than they first feared.

Nick Waterfield runs Parson Cross foodbank - they've so far given out 4,000 more food parcels this year than they did last year:

"We've had people who haven't had money for months. And I mean literally months. Over delays over their claims, confusions over their claims, mistakes that have been made with their claims. And they've been left without money for maybe six, twelve, more weeks.

"Information gets processed wrongly and therefore that messes up the claim. Information isn't necessarily fully available at the time, because people don't come prepared with the information, and it delays the claim. The system is such that people are then left without money."

Many claimants of the new benefit have to wait five weeks before their first payment, but can apply for an advance payment has to be repaid.

Nick says the current system just isn't working:

"We need to get some common sense and some compassion back in. So that people are dealing with people and understanding that they're dealing with people. Not claimants, not numbers, not claims like they're some kind of number on a system.

"We are failing too many people and we have turned away from the most vulnerable."

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions said:

“The reasons for people using food banks are complex.

“Universal Credit is a force for good, with 2.2 million people now being supported by the benefit. It gives people financial help if they’re unemployed, low-paid or unable to work.

“People can get paid urgently if they need it and we’ve changed the system so people can receive even more money in the first two weeks than under the old system."