Is this the sort of person the Telegraph wants us to hate?
My colleagues in welfare rights and debt advice are linked in to a crisis support helpline. Often, someone ringing the helpline will reveal that their crisis is related to an underlying debt or benefit problem, so if needed, a referral can be expeditiously made to us while the immediate need is addressed.
Late on Friday, a call came in from a young woman in despair. She’d been sanctioned £84 from her Universal Credit (UC) because she missed a deadline for submitting a document on her journal. She was in court that day regarding her rent arrears.
She was then invited by the DWP to apply for a ‘hardship payment’ — note that they absolutely know that their sanctions cause hardship — to see her through, which she duly applied for. She received a message on her journal at 5.55pm on Wednesday advising that she would receive a call on Thursday.
The call never came. So by Friday afternoon, having tried to ring the UC helpline numerous times, she gave up and rang the crisis helpline in desperation. She’d had no electricity in her home for 6 days. The only thing she had in the cupboard was a bag of pasta, but no means to cook it, so she ate it raw. She also needed sanitary products. Just imagine this situation for a moment if you can. The absolute horror of this scenario. No hot water to clean herself or her clothes either.
She was initially offered a foodbank voucher by my colleague, which she gratefully accepted, and she went, without delay, to the foodbank. She said:
‘Words can’t express how grateful I am. Thank you so much.’
While she was at the Foodbank — the volunteers there trying to pack items for her that wouldn’t require electricity to cook — my colleague and I put our heads together. Household Support Fund? Could we make an emergency application that didn’t require an hour and a half of form-filling and bank statements? Well, in a situation like this, yes, we could. We did what we needed to do to get a £50 Paypoint voucher sent to this lady’s phone which she could exchange for cash.
My colleague rang her. She was crying — the voucher had already pinged on to her phone. She asked my colleague if this was real — was it from her? My colleague assured her it was real and yes, it came from her.
This young lady had collapsed on the floor at the Foodbank when she received the text message and the volunteers were hastily repacking her bags with items that she would be able to cook now that her electricity supply could be restored. My colleague was also in tears by this stage. £50 and this lady could eat and wash and buy some sanitary products.
Just so I’m clear, the ‘average AB Telegraph reader’ has savings over £100K, the majority (93%) are more likely to buy their *main* car brand new and they are 36% more likely to go on 2 or more holidays per year — and this lot really want to whip up this engineered, misleading and skewed hatred for the young lady above? Why?
I’m an average earner — I find my finances to be frustratingly tight at the moment and I’m 100% not likely to have 1 holiday this year, let alone 2 or more, but I absolutely want as much of my income tax as possible to provide for people who are in poverty and suffering. The trouble is that it doesn’t. I don’t know exactly what the Tory government are doing with my taxes but it’s definitely not providing enough of a safety net for people who need it.
I don’t want people to get into the state this lady did…do you? What would you have me do, Telegraph reader? Scream at her to get a job? Whip out your calculator and point out exactly how much of your wealth has gone towards ensuring she has absolutely nothing and little hope besides? You may be extremely well-off and privileged enough never to have bump into these dreadul situations in your comfortable, cruise-filled lives, but wouldn’t you help this lady if you saw her and knew what she was going through?
Luckily, she doesn’t have to rely on you — there are plenty of us, less well off, but with an ocean of compassion and empathy — enough to float your 5* cruise liner in. Don’t you trouble yourselves — we’ll help the people that your favourite newspaper is badmouthing. Plenty of us felt sick at the Telegraph’s tweet — like last week’s divisive offering from Jeremy Vine (or his team, whatever) — and I’d like to think there are more of us than there are of you. Time will tell.
