Dotty G

I was on Income support and claimed Housing Benefit for many years, when my 1st child (who is now nearly 20) was born.

Things seemed so much easier then, and as a single mum, I only had to start looking for work when she was 7, years old, and even then, my appointments at the Jobcentre were very rare, and you didn't feel pressured to find a job- and any old job at that.

However, when my 2nd child, a son (who is nearly 8 years old) came along, the law had changed, because from the time he had reached 6 months old (not 7 years old as was the case with my daughter) I had to attend work focused interviews, and asked what I was doing to increase my chances if finding work. My appointments were fortnightly thereafter (however, I was still on Income Support then).

In addition, when my son had reached 5, I had to migrate onto Universal Credit (because the law required me to do so) and I didn't have any say in the matter. I felt as if this move was definitely not beneficial - but, as I mentioned earlier - I had no choice in the matter, because I had to do so by Law.

I say moving from legacy benefits to Universal Credit has not it been beneficial for 2 reasons mainly, based the experiences that I've had.

The first experience was because, in the interim between me having my 1st and 2nd child, I became disabled, in fact, the DWP acknowledged this by stating that I had a Limited Capacity to Work (LCW).

I was on Income Support when I was diagnosed as having the LCW, and was given a 'Severe Disability Payment' on top of my Income Support due to my disability, by the DWP.

However, because the law regarding payments to those with a LCW changed in 2017, when I migrated onto Universal Credit, i lost my 'Severe Disability Premium' and received nothing in place of it instead.

In addition, due to my disability, I also applied for 'Gardening Care Service' through my local council, which I thought I was entitled to recieve for free, since my neighbour was also getting it, and she was in a similar situation to me.

However, after having completed the application form and assessment for it, my application was rejected on the basis that I was claiming UC.

When I phoned the gardening department to obtain further information about why my application was rejected, he said that had I had stated on Housing Benefit (a legacy benefit, as my neighbour had done) they would of been able to provide me with the service, but, because I had migrated onto Universal Credit (who don't have allocated funds to pay for a Gardening service for tenants) my application was rejected.

In fact, the representative from the Gardening Service even apologised to me for this, but said the situation was out of his hands because it was all down to legislation.

Therefore, for me, given some of the experiences I've outlined above, moving onto Universal Credit from legacy benefits has been a bit of a negative experience, especially because I didn't migrate onto Universal Credit out of choice.