A mother has said she was left to survive on a mere £100 a week with her two children after her universal credit payments were stopped due to an error.
Tanya Williams was incorrectly sent to an appointment at a job centre in Bromborough, Merseyside. But when she arrived on July 22 for her scheduled appointment, she found it had been permanently closed. She says she was told by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that a new appointment would be set up – but then says her benefits were wrongly stopped.
As a full-time carer for her daughter Aicha Williams, who is autistic and suffers up to 50 seizures daily due to a brain tumour removed in infancy, plus caring for her other 12 year old daughter Saya, the 40-year-old found herself in dire straits.
Having lost her partner and father to her children last year to a “major heart attack”, Tanya said she was forced to survive on the small amount of child benefits and her carers allowance for nearly four weeks, reports the Liverpool Echo.
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Tanya said: “It’s been really tough. For most of the six weeks summer holidays I’ve not been able to do anything with children. My eldest has just turned 18 and it’s meant to be her party this weekend, I don’t really know what we’re going to do.
“We’ve stopped having snacks in the house and we have managed okay with meals, but it’s hard. I’m lucky where I can take things as they come. It’s not been easy and I’ve broke down a couple of times but you have to keep going.”
She was later sent a text from DWP for a new meeting on Thursday, September 5 – but once again sending her to the closed Bromborough site.
She expressed her frustration, saying: “It’s ridiculous, it’s been shut for years. Surely they must have it down as being shut somewhere.
“My cousin has been sent there too before. It’s ridiculous that they don’t know what is going on with the job centres.”
The ECHO learned from DWP that after an arson attack at Bromborough Job Centre Plus in 2022, customers were supposed to be informed that appointments are actually at Birkenhead Job Centre Plus, but this information was mistakenly omitted from Tanya’s original booking.
They also added that Tanya’s payments were retroactively paid in full once DWP was alerted on August 21. A DWP spokesperson provided a statement to the ECHO, confirming: “We have been in touch with Ms Williams and backdated her missed payments in full.”
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