This week was a nightmare, at home we are having boiler problems in our lower ground flat that we have rented from an agency since Christmas. The big problem is when there is no free help for private renters that are being played by the agencies or landlords. I wish the borough had free lawyers to support tenants to know more about their rights.

Mental health struggles is real we need help, the help available is not enough sometimes it feels like it's just a joke to those who have not had mental struggles and hmmmm

I hope help is close to those of us that need it

Trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

I’m feeling battered and bruised mentally having recently had my finances scrutinised for the 2nd time in a year. Now I’m facing a Work Capability Assessment as I’m only working 12 hours per week term time and according to the Job Centre this is unacceptable. My appointment was last week but had to be rescheduled as they had run late and I couldn’t stay due to needing to collect my child from school. A day of huge emotional distress for absolutely no point and I’ll now live with permanent anxiety anticipating the rescheduled assessment.

I already know the outcome of the assessment - zero points. Having done my due diligence, the symptoms of my multiple health conditions don't fit the neat little check boxes of the overwhelming criteria.

I want to sit down with a real human being - one who will listen and make a logical judgement. I don’t want a random ‘medical professional’ who has never heard of my disease to read from a script.

The very fact that I actually have a job (zero hours contract) will be interpreted as ‘fit to work’. 6 months ago I was dismissed from my employment on the grounds of incapacity due to ill health - surely that should mean something? I now work 3 days a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday as I need a day to rest and recover in-between. Irrelevant information they will say…

I’m a full time solo parent carer to my 8 year old autistic son. Until he is in receipt of DLA (26 week wait for form to be processed) I can’t ‘register’ as his carer.

And so it continues - The endless pressure of not doing enough, not being enough, the sanctions for not jumping through the hoops on time.

Maybe if they were square not round I might stand a chance at navigating this system.

Amazing how sometimes UC really pushes notifications... and then what they choose not to flag up at all. Why, yes, I think it's pretty important that someone has decided that we were overpaid by more than £600 in UC last year, and that they intend to start taking that back. And yes, I'd like more information, beyond it being being an 'Other Income' issue. Because I know they had all the correct information from our side... so it was their error. #PoorPeopleDoNotJustNeedHelpToBudget

Lots in the news about Conservatives defecting to Reform and the new leader of Reform Scotland. I am finding it hard, knowing these politicians don't care about anyone in poverty.

Energy app to top up gas and electric to pre payment meters has been taking my payments but not adding them to my account.

E Energy blaming the bank for obstructing the payments. Bank say there is no restrictions on my card.

I currently have £80 floating around between banks and on emergency credit.

Finally have the time and energy to post again, after child 4 spent 3 months in hospital, just barely making it home for Xmas. Family cost impact - absolutely eye-watering. So much deeper in debt now, I genuinely feel our household budget may never get back to where it was. Transport costs, food costs, massively increased stress levels.

In today's news

Millions of people on Universal Credit are being quietly blocked from switching bank accounts and it is completely unnecessary.

Martin Lewis has written to the Government warning that up to 8.3 million UC claimants face extra bureaucracy simply for trying to change banks. While most people can switch accounts in a few clicks, many on UC are told they must manually notify the DWP or even attend an in person Jobcentre appointment. Some risk delayed or frozen payments. Others just give up altogether.

This means people already struggling miss out on:

• bank switching bonuses

• cheaper overdrafts

• better accounts

• modern digital banks

All of this costs the Government nothing to fix.

The Current Account Switch Service already has fraud checks built in and is fully Government supported. Yet Universal Credit adds pointless hurdles that waste Jobcentre time and punish people for trying to improve their finances.

Even worse, the UC system still struggles with digital banks, as if we are stuck in a world of paper statements and high street branches.

This is bad for competition, bad for consumers and bad for the economy.

No extra spending required. Just update the system and let people on Universal Credit switch banks like everyone else.

And let’s be honest. This entire system was created by the last Tory government, and once again it falls to a Labour government to fix what never worked properly in the first place.

Before the usual Labour bashing starts, I am confident these issues will be addressed in due course. Common sense tends to win eventually. Sensationalism at its best once again exploited by a hostile right wing Media.

And on that a member of one of the groups to which I belong added this

“This happened to me when I was on UC. I had to attend my job centre with details of my new account. They would only accept seeing physical proof of the debit card. The reason for doing this is to prevent fraud, and to make sure you're the actual account holder”

Had a great christmas, until I dropped a pan and smashes my cooker top.

I’m sitting here thinking about everything that’s happened in my life — being a mum of four, two grown now and two still in receipt of benefits — and I can’t help feeling completely overwhelmed by the way this government has handled the lift on the two-child limit.

I’ve lived through things most people couldn’t imagine. I’ve survived horrendous, traumatic experiences, including the worst thing a mother could ever go through: losing my child to domestic abuse and suicide. That grief shapes every part of my life. But even through all of that, I have never expected the government to “keep” my children. They were my choice, my responsibility, and I’ve done everything I can to raise them despite circumstances that would have broken many people.

What I would have expected — what would actually make sense — is for the government to hold non-paying parents accountable. To go to the other parent and say: your child needs support, you contribute. Instead, the responsibility gets dumped on the taxpayer, and nothing changes for the parents who walk away without consequence. That part has always felt wrong.

I know Labour are trying to respond to long-standing campaigns. I know there are families who’ve fought for years to see the limit removed. But the way this has been done feels completely wrong. It’s like they’ve learned nothing from the conversations we’ve had in Changing Realities or the work the Trussell Trust has done to humanise the people behind Universal Credit claims. Overnight, the stigma has blown up again — bigger than ever — and it feels like everything we fought for has been undone.

What frustrates me is that there are families having children they simply cannot afford, and expecting the state to carry the weight automatically. And I don’t agree with that. I believe in supporting people through hardship, of course I do — God knows I’ve been in some of the darkest places — but I also believe in personal responsibility. If you choose to bring a child into the world, you should be prepared to provide for them.

And now, on top of everything else, I’ve never seen so much backlash from working-class people as I have over the lifting of the two-child limit. It’s everywhere — comments, conversations, anger — and it’s coming from the very communities who are struggling the most. The hardest thing is knowing that many of the people being criticised for “living off benefits” are actually working themselves. So many low-wage workers claim Universal Credit just to survive. This is exactly the stigma we’ve been trying to break, and suddenly it feels like we’re right back at the beginning.

It’s painful to realise that a campaign meant to help families has done the opposite — fuelling resentment instead of understanding, undoing so much of the progress we made.

Life can put you in situations where you end up with nothing — I’ve lived that more than once — but in those moments I’ve had to find ways to manage on what I had. People who don’t claim benefits, who work low-paid jobs, don’t get options when tragedy hits them. They feel overlooked, unheard, and now they’re turning their frustration on families who didn’t create this situation in the first place.

Tonight, I feel torn. I want children to be protected and families to be supported. But I also want fairness. I want accountability where it belongs. And right now, it feels like the government aimed at the wrong target again.

SEND provisions in schools will always be a bug bare of mine. My son has complex needs with 32.5 hours of funding provided by the local authority. His mainstream school decided that alone they cannot meet his needs. They sourced an alternative provision 10 miles away (now 50 miles away from me) for 2 days a week and he's thriving. However, we have now been told it was funded by the school for 6 weeks at almost 2000. They refused to fund transport. The school have now (after we gave sent countless emails) requested a further 6 weeks funding from the LA, but we are in limbo. He's on a restricted timetable in mainstream and at least 3 years behind in every subject. This new school provides tutoring at an extra cost and is literally set up to cater and accommodate him with a place available. But once again we are arguing about funding and money. When did putting the child's needs health and welfare become second to who holds the purse strings?

He needs this placement permanently full time but they are arguing over 2 days. And still I travel 100 miles to collect him and get home twice a week. Make it make sense? Our kids deserve better.

WES STREETING MENTAL HEALTH REVIEW

I can't tell you how nervous this makes me. I have been off work for most of this year. I have UNDIAGNOSED ADHD and Autism. I have been on the waiting list for ADHD since 2021 and am on a waiting list for Autism for 2 years. Other members of my family have been able to afford private diagnoses. My siblings and their children all have their appropriate diagnoses. My eldest has a diagnosis of Aspergers from when they was 18, they are now 25. Neurodivergence is a huge issue in my immediate and extended family. There are and have always historically been serious issues with mental health that more recently we have understood to be related to Neurodivergence. ADHD and Autism in themselves are not mental health conditions but they can definitely exacerbate poor mental health. More recently I have understood that my increased mental health and ADHD symptoms are related to peri-menopause. Menopause can cause huge issues in a person's mental health and this is not well understood as women are so frequently underserved by health and medical research (Interesting that two men are heading up the review). These issues are complex and I am anxious that this review is a project that will justify benefit refusal and that it will halt diagnoses for people who desperately need it. Wes Streeting is in an area that he clearly does not understand, playing around clumsily with issues that impact people's lives in ways he does not understand. I guess that's the point, its a front to be able to cut disability and mental health benefits. There are ways to support people back to better mental health and this is clearly not it. There are ways to support people out in a neurotypical world to be able to manage and not be overloaded and burned out all of the time and this is not it. There are ways to support women and understand how neurodivergence, mental health and menopause are linked and then be able to better support them, but this is not it. There will be many more people with ADHD, Autism and mental health challenges, also living in poverty, relying on benefits, with limited support and resources who are frozen in absolute horror right now. Some triggers are sensory and some triggers are political.