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Live in the UK? Think children shouldn't starve? Sign this petition
One would think that believing that children shouldn't live in destitution in a country that you run if your country is rich enough to avoid it is a mark of basic human decency. But it's a mark that this and the previous government have broken with the introduction of Universal Credit in its present form. A 'simplifying' system that leaves people with no savings, no other resources, without money for food, rent, and heating for weeks and weeks, and that does this as an integral part of its design.
If you think "Oh, it can't be that bad, the government wouldn't think it OK for kids to starve", then read this Guardian article. Because kids are starving, and cold, and living in unfit accommodation in one of the richest countries of the world and it is utterly shameful.
Back at Neo social supermarket, where they had just received a few turkeys they planned to sell for 50p, Wilkes received a typical text. “Hi sorry to bother you,” it began. It was from a mother whose income support had stopped without warning. She had received a letter ordering her to apply for universal credit. “I have literally sat sobbing since 3 this afternoon as I have been told that I will not receive a payment until 27 January and I can’t apply for the advance loan until I get an appointment and I have to wait for an appointment which will take 3-5 working days which means I will not get any money until after Xmas. I literally have nothing and have two very beautiful kids who I have basically failed, don’t have a clue where to turn to as I have tried everything I can think of.”
If my employer said "Hi, we've decided to reassess your salary and now we won't pay you for a month and a half, you can starve for all we care" it would be illegal. But that's what the government is doing, and unlike me, the people who it is doing it do aren't on the kind of salary that has allowed them to save and manage in the meantime. And so they are starving, cold and in some cases evicted.
Petition link here.
If you don't want to sign a Labour petition against people starving, then go and find another petition against Universal Credit and sign that. Or set up your own, it's quick to do.
This is your Christmas message from![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nineveh_uk
If you think "Oh, it can't be that bad, the government wouldn't think it OK for kids to starve", then read this Guardian article. Because kids are starving, and cold, and living in unfit accommodation in one of the richest countries of the world and it is utterly shameful.
Back at Neo social supermarket, where they had just received a few turkeys they planned to sell for 50p, Wilkes received a typical text. “Hi sorry to bother you,” it began. It was from a mother whose income support had stopped without warning. She had received a letter ordering her to apply for universal credit. “I have literally sat sobbing since 3 this afternoon as I have been told that I will not receive a payment until 27 January and I can’t apply for the advance loan until I get an appointment and I have to wait for an appointment which will take 3-5 working days which means I will not get any money until after Xmas. I literally have nothing and have two very beautiful kids who I have basically failed, don’t have a clue where to turn to as I have tried everything I can think of.”
If my employer said "Hi, we've decided to reassess your salary and now we won't pay you for a month and a half, you can starve for all we care" it would be illegal. But that's what the government is doing, and unlike me, the people who it is doing it do aren't on the kind of salary that has allowed them to save and manage in the meantime. And so they are starving, cold and in some cases evicted.
Petition link here.
If you don't want to sign a Labour petition against people starving, then go and find another petition against Universal Credit and sign that. Or set up your own, it's quick to do.
This is your Christmas message from
nineveh_uk