You are not alone - challenging stigma through our guide

When I signed on Universal Credit I didn’t realise the path it would lead me on. I was volunteering at a benefits advice centre when I was asked if I would be willing to go and meet with a lecturer at Ulster University (Mark), who wanted to speak to people that had been placed onto Universal Credit. I went thinking it would be a chat and that would be the end of it. I know it sounds dramatic but going to that meeting that day changed me.

It changed me because it led to my participation in UC:Us. Through UC:Us, I met other people who had been through what I had been through on the Universal Credit journey. We found that we had quite a lot in common. We thought that there are a lot of problems with the current benefits system, and not least because of the shame we all suffered for claiming Universal Credit.

I left that meeting wanting to fight. To change what people had to go through applying for it but most of all to change the stigma. To change the small mindedness that it’s shameful. To change the toxic myth that anyone on it didn’t want to work, that “we’re lazy!”. Being part of UC:Us made me feel like I had a voice. We are going to continue to shout about the injustice(s) of what happened to us and other people from the rooftops until things change for the better. This is partly what the UC:Us guide is about. We don’t just want to help you navigate Universal Credit, we want to you to know that you are not alone and that there are others out there who want to create a better, fairer benefits system for all of us.

Unfortunately covid has slowed that down for both UC:Us and my volunteer work, and it’s also put a lot of people on Universal Credit. We have been working in the background having Zoom meetings, emailing, working hard to get this information out about where to go to, where you can find help while on Universal Credit. I’m so proud of the job we have all done together to make this happen and hope the guide will help a lot of people that are now faced with navigating the benefits system.

Written by Joanna, UC:Us member