Man on Universal Credit who had benefits cut wins DWP appeal

A man who claims he was living on vegetable juice and had to take food from this elderly mother after having his benefits cut has won a DWP appeal. Errol Livingstone's Universal Credit pay was cut by the Job Centre, and the former NHS worker said the the shortfall caused him extreme hardship.

He lost £11 per day for eight days, a total of £88, from his monthly payment of £319.84. Errol previously told ChronicleLive he has, at times, lived on cartons of pure vegetable juice, fresh orange juice and fruit.

He said he also has to take food from his elderly mother and search the supermarket shelves for reduced items. While the 57-year-old was pleased when his appeal was upheld, he is also disappointed that the DWP did not apologise for what he considers to be their error.

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"At the end of the day, I didn't do anything wrong, so they should not have taken the money away from me in the first place," said Errol. He claims he was under the impression that he didn't have to attend a course due to his experience in recruitment and was later told he should have been there.

"The sanctions don't give you any right to reply or respond to the accusations, they are just imposed on you," he said. "I go on my Universal Credit journal every day and one day I noticed that the sanction had been imposed. There's no communication or no way you can defend yourself. It's an awful system.

"I appealed and then noticed some weeks later that there was an update that my appeal had been upheld and the money would be repaid," said Errol. "There was no apology or explanation. I had to get a short-term loan to tide me over, which I will have to pay back through my