Joanna's experience of Universal Credit

I had to sign on UC because I finished the work placement I was on. Everything about it is a struggle. From the five week wait for your first payment, to the fact that as soon as you sign on the Department for Work and Pensions checks if you ever had an overpayment of tax credits. In my case, I owed money from ten years ago when my daughter left college. She’s now 28! This meant that they took all of my first payment and it was actually 10 weeks before I got any money. By this time I owed out a fortune and I have no way to ever pay it back. For me, being on UC is degrading and I can’t wait to get off it.