Amnesty International

Refugees at home

Refugee Action

All with accurate information on why asylum seekers flee their home countries and how to support them.

Hi everyone, hope you are all doing well and keeping warm, it has not been a good week with everything going on with the asylum system and all these new laws that the Home Secretary wants to implement.

Despite what media owned by billionaire tax avoiders say, most people welcome asylum seekers into the UK. We must keep sharing facts to educate.

Had a 1 hour appt via phone with Universal Credit today.

The advisor asking what can she do to support my autistic 19 yr old daughter into a full time job or find a 2nd job or gain confidence by attending college as well as keep her part time job .

All the messages I have left on the UC journal stating my daughter's difficulties due to autism, the fit notes from the GP, doesn't seem to stop the passive aggressive attitude of UC advisors who seem determined to force my daughter into full time work by box ticking DWP workers.

There was an offer of an Access to Work grant. I am so ground down by this UC system, I asked her to send on info via email. The call finished at 16 minutes. I will be called again in December and January for a decision of whether to accept the Access to work support.

I'm biting my tongue not to tell the advisor to where to stick their "support".... Their support and my daughter's needs are very different.

It would be easier to give up on hoping for any financial support from the DWP. But why should we? It's our entitlement.

Going back into work his a good thing but there is a massive gap in UC, should gives a grace period for our first wages and for children as well.

This could help the poverty gap

I have a negative experience with universal credit because it does not improve the quality of my life and keeps me in poverty, struggling to eat, put a roof over my head and makes it even harder to find employment. I know some employers who have said they would not hire people on universal credit, making it harder for those people to change their realities. I know the system does not work but the government know they are in the wrong for not creating a service that works and research has proven the government created these jobcentres. People are fighting for change and something better which annoys the government because they know they need to invest money and create a system that works and they don't want to do that.

My experience is impacted by whether or not UC helps me meet my basic needs (housing, food). If not, engagement becomes stressful and negative. Feeling as though my payments will go just as far as they need to makes each interaction with the program feel very time-sensitive and pressing. It also makes me much more aware of any delay, error, or lack of clarity within the experience itself. When one does not meet one's cost of living needs, trust becomes harder to bring to each interaction instead of anticipation or relief.

When I assess my own situations for which my UC requirements conflict with my caregiving responsibilities, job searching activities, or my own health requirements, my perception of the UC system is one of inflexibility and thus experiencing frustration with engagement activities. When my expectations do not match my experience of my daily realities of my responsibilities, it generates stress and feelings of being predisposed to failure. This contributes to my lack of motive for effective communication and tasks because I do not want my situations to not be appreciated or understood.

Comparisons to former schemes (JSA, Housing Benefit, Tax Credits) influence my perceptions of whether UC is an improvement or a reduction, and thus my attitude toward it itself. Perhaps my perceptions of past schemes have been of them being simpler or more straightforward, and UC appears to be moving backwards, thus increasing my exasperation. Conversely, if my perceptions include past schemes being piecemeal or confusing to me, UC appears to have simplified things for me.

Understanding data monitoring, journal reviews, and sanctions is why I have come to my conclusions about UC being a punitive program and how this impacts my openness during engagement tasks. Feeling as though everything is being monitored and recorded makes me very cautious with information even if it does not pertain to anything negative and makes me nervous about being misinterpreted or committing some unknown infraction leading to sanctions.

How emotionally resilient I am affects whether UC is a supportive or threatening experience for me. Stress affects my level of engagement. Observing others go through the system—their successes and failures—shapes my expectations and confidence. Hearing stories of delays, sanctions, or confusion makes me even more anxious. But success stories from others may encourage me to engage more freely. It is all part of my emotional makeup that affects how boldly I engage with the system or how freely I come to others for help when I need it.

The social stigma surrounding claiming benefits is why I feel like UC is something to be hidden or kept secret, which impacts how openly or actively I participate or ask for assistance. This stigma makes me wonder if I personally “deserve” to attempt to seek help or assistance or if it is worth seeking at all because of feelings of embarrassment associated with each interaction. It makes me feel as though this whole experience is one of being alone while seeking assistance for something meant to bring relief or support.