Tag: Child

12 the next day she took her five-month-old son in her arms

Posted on
Six months after having her income cut off and housing benefit withdrawn
she was sharing her sister’s one-bedroom flat
destitute
with a baby to care for.
32 years old,
a Frenchwoman
living in Britain
since 1997.
In 2008 she graduated
with a degree in philosophy.
She found she was pregnant.
She looked for work.
The Department told her
the fact that she was within 11 weeks of giving birth
disqualified her;
she was not in a fit condition to work.
She was told to apply for income support.
But she had an eight-month period in 2003
when she had been working in a cafe,
and had no records to prove it;
her claim was turned down.
Appealed;
turned down.
She applied for child benefit;
rejected.
Hackney council demanded she repay
200 pounds in housing benefit
she had been given
just as her Jobseeker’s allowance
was being taken away.
She applied to take the Department to tribunal
but repeatedly failed to be given a date
for the hearing.
She was desperate.
Her last attempt to get a date from the tribunal service
took place on 12 June.
The next day she took her five-month-old son in her arms
and jumped from the flat’s sixth-floor balcony.

[The Guardian, 08/01/2010, Comment: Christelle and her baby died at the hands of a callous state]

14 she was no longer allowed to work

Posted on
After her leave to remain expired
she was no longer allowed to work.
She claimed asylum,
was relying on food from friends
and charities.
No one had heard from her for four days.
Her one-year-old son
weakened from starvation
was found by police
crying
beside her body.

[Herald Scotland, 25/08/2020, Mum ‘found dead beside starving one-year-old baby’ in Glasgow flat]

15 he sat in his car in a quiet country lane

Posted on
He was twenty thousand pounds
in debt. Payday loans;
one thousand per cent interest.
His children told their grandmother
Santa hadn’t come the year before.
A single dad, he quit his job in a factory to look after his children, but fell behind with rent
and with trying to feed and clothe them.
He had four pounds sixty one pence
in his account, waiting for the benefit;
there is an average five-week wait for the first payment.
He had been served an eviction notice.
He sat in his car in a quiet country lane,
crying.

[Metro, 21/07/2019, Dad, 34, took his own life after wait for Universal Credit left him with £4.61; Daily Mirror, 20/07/2019, Single dad with just £4.61 took own life after waiting weeks for Universal Credit]

25 long hours

Posted on
She was brought up as a slave
long hours
scraps of leftover food like a dog
fine scars down one side of her face and right leg.
At the age of 15
she was sold to a trafficker
who brought her to the UK.
In London
she was locked in a house
and repeatedly raped.
She escaped.
She later gave birth to a daughter.
She wanted to study English
get a job
walk away from life
on benefits.
She struggled to buy shoes for her children.
Then the Department informed her
it was axing her support
because she had failed to show them a document
she had never been asked
to produce.
She called the Department helpline.
Waited to speak to someone.
A recorded message informed her
there would be
a charge
for the call.

[The Guardian, 06/01/2016, The DWP – a bureaucracy of outstanding brutality]