This afternoon, St Peter's Square in Manchester was transformed into a giant slogan board against Universal Credit, as campaign groups staged a protest as part of Disabled People Against the Cuts (DPAC) national day of action calling for the benefit to be 'Stopped and Scrapped'.
Groups including the Greater Manchester Law Centre, Acorn Tenants' Union, Unite Community Union, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People and Manchester Disabled People Against the Cuts took part in the action, with chalked slogans festooning the Square, ranging from 'Assist us to live, not die' to 'No cuts for carers' allowance' to the stark 'Universal Credit hell'...
"Only yesterday in the Homeless Link report, Universal Credit was found to be linked to the shocking rise in youth homelessness" said Debi Blanchard who works with homeless young people "Universal Credit is all about punishing the poor. It needs to stop and will go the same way as the Poll Tax; it is an unjust broken system..."
At the demonstration a giant letter was handed into Manchester City Council, signed from Acorn, DPAC, Greater Manchester Housing Action and the Greater Manchester Law Centre expressing concern over evictions caused by the roll-out of Universal Credit...
"Because of the waiting period after applying for, or switching to, the Universal Credit system, vulnerable tenants are at risk from eviction due to either rent arrears that they accumulate in the several weeks it can take for their first payment to arrive, or by unfair, pre-emptive action by landlords" the letter stated
"In light of this, we seek Manchester City Council's assurance that under no circumstances will you allow an eviction order to be enacted towards a resident of Manchester purely as a result of waiting for the first payment of Universal Credit, or subsequent processing delays which may occur" it added
"We look forward to your commitment to this pledge in order to protect vulnerable tenants across the city from homelessness" the letter concluded.
The campaigners are hoping for a positive response...
"We, along with all the other organisations are asking for no evictions because Universal Credit is a rubbish system and it's got loads of built in delays and difficulties, which are not errors or mistakes, but part of making the welfare system unusable so it deters people from even trying to use it" explained Ric from Manchester DPAC.
"People will be in a situation where they can't pay rent, not through their fault but through the Universal Credit system, so we're saying to all the local authorities, housing associations and landlords in Greater Manchester 'No evictions'" he added "There's a rumour about Salford getting on board but nothing firm. Andy Burnham has made a commitment and we've handed in this letter today which the Council accepted, so I think it's being listened to."
Even without the threat of eviction, the benefit system imposed by the Tory Government has been catastrophic for disabled people... "I was trying to put together the shortest possible list about the bad things for disabled people in Universal Credit...but it still came out as three pages of A4 tightly typed" Ric insisted "...There's removal of severe disability premiums, the change in how they allow people to claim carer's allowance, a £30 cut in the ESA limited capability for work element...it's still discriminatory and it's still causing harm...
"Like, they don't pay enough in rent, so if you've got a house with disability adaptations that you've fought for over the years, and if Universal Credit causes you to be thrown out of that, you go back to a house that isn't right for you" he added "It gets worse and worse and worse...particularly the vicious things, like removal of disability premiums: there's no logic other than cruelty..."