Mummy died, Daddy has lost his job ...can I get work sweeping floors?
Girl of nine in heartbreaking plea after benefit shambles leaves family skint
A GIRL of nine begged for work to feed her family after Universal Credit left her jobless dad skint.
In a heartbreaking phone call, she told how her mum had died and there was barely any food at home.
She said: “I’ll do anything. I don’t mind cleaning floors, making beds.”
A DESPERATE nine-year-old girl pleads for help from a stranger...
Her mum is dead, her dad is jobless and there’s no money coming in.
She begs for work so she can buy her younger siblings Christmas presents because, though she no longer believes in Father Christmas, they do.
It’s like a heartbreaking Dickensian tale.. but it’s bang up to date, all because of the Tories’ cruel Universal Credit trap.
Charity boss Ellie Waugh, who took the call yesterday, said: “I can’t tell you how horrendous it was hearing a child beg for work in this day and age.
“After the call I just cried. Hearing that is like we’ve gone back to Victorian times.” She said the youngster was “really worried because her family didn’t have any money”.
The HGV driver dad was made redundant five weeks ago and because of the delay in his first Universal Credit payment has been left penniless. Ellie added: “She told me, ‘I don’t mind cleaning floors, making beds. My daddy has always worked and he says you have to work to get things. I’ll do anything I can so I can buy my brother and sister a Christmas present. I can cook and I don’t mind working on a Saturday and Sunday or after school.’ The phone call exposed the harsh reality of life on the hated Universal Credit, which the stubborn Tories refuse to axe, despite the delays and it leaving most worse off. The dad was raising his three children alone in the Torbay area of Devon after his wife died four years ago. He was too proud to beg himself.
But his girl contacted Humanity Torbay, which provides foodbanks and support for the vulnerable.
CEO Ellie reassured the brave child she would not have to work. She called her dad, who wants to remain nameless, and promised food and support.
Ellie said: “He cried because he was embarrassed but because he is proud of her. Proud that she loved her brother and sister so much she wanted to help them. He said they were literally down to their last few bits in the freezer.”
Ellie and her volunteers visited the family with food parcels last night.
Offers of support also flooded in, with strangers donating Christmas turkeys and presents. The dad said: “I’m very
proud of my daughter and horrified I’ve been reduced to this. It’s humbling that people want to help us.”
Ellie has invited Theresa May and Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey to visit her charity, but is yet to receive a response. She said: “I want them to see the reality of what Universal Credit is doing, to see the look of ‘no hope’ in people’s eyes when they come asking for food.”
Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine said: “It is heartbreaking that a young girl was so worried about her family she begged a charity for work. Tory ministers cannot put their hands over their ears and pretend they can’t hear her.”
It’s like we’ve gone back to Victorian times. I just cried
ELLIE WAUGH CHARITY BOSS WHO TOOK CALL
THE soaring use of foodbanks is a stain on our country, with charities forced to care for people abandoned by a welfare state that is punched full of holes.
A caring government would abandon universal credit, put up its hand and try to mend the broken benefits system.
But these Conservatives don’t care about the victims they create. It feels like ministers enjoy revelling in the hardship inflicted, wrongly blaming the unfortunate for their plight.
Universal credit requires a fundamental overhaul, yet all the Conservatives do is tinker and look the other way as children become collateral damage when families are hit with merciless, arbitrary penalties.
Something is seriously wrong when the groups hurt most include single parents, the disabled and people with health problems.
We applaud foodbank volunteers and supporters, but the truth is we wouldn’t need them if we had a welfare state worth the name.