A mum-of-eight says her family is living off "whatever they have in" after her Universal Credit payments were cut.
Pam Booth, 51, said she struggled to keep on top of bills and provide for her family while studying to become a teaching assistant. The mum has been visiting a foodbank so that her family is "able to eat".
Her children are aged eight, 13, 15, 17, 21, 23, 27 and 29. The youngest four are still living at home, and Pam also has to provide for her pet chihuahua and her daughter’s Staffordshire bull terrier.
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Pam and her children have been visiting the foodbank for about four months. She told Leeds Live : “It’s healthy good food that they give you. Before we had this option it would be like beans on toast on a night time.
"Since we’ve been up here, going to the pantry, being able to have dinner has really helped. We don’t have takeaways because we can’t afford takeaways.
"We were having to live on whatever we had in before we came up here. Coming up here, we’re able to have whatever we want. The kids get fresh fruit from here. Before we started coming here, we were going out and buying fruit once a month.”
Pam is currently receiving Universal Credit while studying to become a special educational needs (SEN) teaching assistant. This makes it even more of struggle, however, as she claims she gets a significant chunk of her benefits knocked off due to being a student.
The 51-year-old from Leeds says other people she knows who are currently unemployed receive more than £300 a month, whereas she says she receives as little as £274 because she’s a student. She thinks the system is broken.
She said: “I’m a student and I get money knocked off for being a student, without coming here then I wouldn’t be able to eat.
“Not a chance, I’ve got to pay rent at £270 a month and the rest of my bills and that lot. Without coming here and the food pantry, I wouldn’t be able to eat. It’s been well and truly [challenging] because when you get bills coming in, you’re thinking ‘how on earth are you going to pay that?’
“Because when you’re a student, you get money deducted [from Universal Credit] for being a student. They knock your money off. And it’s like ‘Hold on a minute. They should be giving us more money because of the fact we’re getting off us backsides and going out and doing something!’
Pam says there are a lot of people visiting the foodbank who are “really truly struggling”. However, she adds her current situation is “worth the struggle to improve other children’s lives” which she will be able to do once she is fully qualified.
SEN teaching is “close” to her heart as she has two children with special needs. One of her daughters has cerebral palsy and another has Williams syndrome, a developmental disorder which affects many parts of the body.
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