THE National prints the following true account without comment ...
“My name is Russell Hamilton, I am 63 years old and I live in East Kilbride. I am a strong independence supporter and have run the Independence Really Useful Fact Page public group on Facebook for the last five years with about 12,000 members. I also run the Indyshop Facebook page and the website www.indyshop.co.uk which I started a year ago.
“It is with great regret that I may have to close Indyshop. The reason: I came off sickness benefit just over a year ago to open Indyshop. I went self-employed and was given the Universal Credit equivalent of Working Tax Credits.
“During that time, I had to report my monthly earnings and outgoings to the DWP. They paid most of my rent and gave me a small amount of cash per month, a total of about £650 per month. This was my safety net.
“This money has now stopped completely. The DSS gave me a simple choice. I could either continue running Indyshop or become unemployed again.
“The one-year limit is a new and relatively unknown part of Universal Credit.
“The strange thing is that if I lived in an area where Universal Credit had not been rolled out I would still be eligible for Working Tax Credits.
“I am now totally reliant on money coming in from Indyshop which, at present, simply isn’t covering my outgoings, though I will keep Indyshop open as long as I can. Please check out my website www.indyshop.co.uk.”
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