DAWN’S STORY

SINGLE mum Dawn Peart told us in April how she and her two young children were under attack by the Tory Government.

Dawn 26, was a trainee accountant but had to sacrifice her career to give 24-hour care to her disabled son Lochlan, four. She knew a cap on housing benefit would cripple her if she tried to move from her two-bedroom home into something suitable for her, Lochlan and his big sister Mirren, seven.

Mirren has kidney disease but she was told by the DWP that she wouldn’t qualify for meaningful benefits until she has renal failure and needs dialysis.

Dawn, from Maryhill, Glasgow, said at the time: “I have a son who has been awarded the highest level of care until 2025 but I still have to attend the Jobcentre Plus, where people are being pressured to make me justify every minute of my day.

“It’s disgusting and it’s an affront to my family’s dignity. All I can see for the three of us in the coming years is that things will get worse and worse.

“I would like my son and daughter to have their own bedroom but I’m already having to top up my private rent housing benefit every month by nearly £40.

“That comes from benefits I desperately need. On top of that, there is a freeze on benefits that takes no account of the way the cost of living is going through the roof.

“They are telling me I need to find work but I’m not on benefits by choice.

“The situation is desperate and there needs to be something done.”

Satwat Rehman, director of One Parent Families Scotland, said: “It is Westminster Government action – rather than merely inaction – who are actively driving down the life chances of single parents and their children.”