(FOREIGN) Woman Loses Baby After Universal Credit Error Forces Her Family To sleep in a Car Park

 

    A young couple say a Universal Credit bungle left them homeless and sleeping rough - causing her to lose their unborn baby. Debbie Ballard and Ryan Gifford, both 23, were kicked out of their home in December and spent 15 nights sheltering in a car park.

   They say they became homeless after being switched onto Universal Credit when an automatic rent payment was missed and their landlord evicted them, reports Devon Live . The pair are now in emergency accommodation but the damage has been done as they have now lost their unborn child. Debbie said: "Losing my baby makes me feel like s**t. I feel useless and worthless. And now I have lost another baby. "I was about six weeks pregnant when we were street homeless in December. I had a miscarriage because of all the stress. "All we want is a chance for us to be a proper family."

   Before they were evicted, the pair were living in a flat in the town but were switched onto the new benefits system when they fell out, and Ryan took Debbie off his claim.
They got back together but due to the change in circumstance, they were automatically switched onto Universal Credit. Originally, their rent was paid directly to the landlord but a payment was missed in the changeover and the pair were evicted due to being in arrears. Debbie said: "We were living in a flat. It was full of mould and rats outside and we had made complaints to the landlords.

   "Our Housing Benefit was being paid direct to the landlord but when it switched over to Universal Credit he said we were in arrears and served us with a notice and said he would take us to court." The couple say they did not receive letters about the changeover, and before they knew it their housing benefit was stopped and it was too late. Debbie said: "It's too late now. We should have been told that before we were made homeless. "They said it was because of a change in circumstances. We were without money for eight weeks. We were literally begging and borrowing from everybody we knew.

    "At the beginning of December, we had 15 days sleeping on the streets because of Universal Credit. We were sleeping in a car park on the harbour. It was really horrible. "It was so cold at night. If you go down to the bottom car park near the Harvester pub it's warm in there. "But there's an alarm that goes off every 10 minutes for 20 seconds.

MIRROR UK