Fears Chesterfield facing ‘tsunami’ of mental health problems following Universal Credit cuts

Lee Waterhouse, 45, suffers from depression, which he said leaves him unable to work.

He said: “I’m ill with mental health problems, so obviously I can’t work- I have no choice in the matter, there’s nothing I can do to work or get a better wage.

“I’ve suffered from depression since my teens - there are times when I can’t work, and this is one of those times.”

Mr Waterhouse said that before Covid, he was visiting food banks as he struggled to feed his children, and was given notice on his home as he couldn’t pay his rent.

The £20 credit uplift ensured his children were eating, no longer having to rely on food banks. However, along with 8,140 families in Chesterfield- including 5,163 children - he’s set to be affected by the decision to end the uplift, and believes the town will face a surge in mental health issues.

“Poverty is a massive factor in a lot of mental illness in the UK. With so many people going into poverty, I’m really concerned about the effect of this - there’s going to be a tsunami of mental health problems.

“Personally, I know how poverty affected me, wondering where the next meal for my kids would come from, nearly losing my kids cause I couldn’t feed them- that’s the reality of these things, not wage rises and things like that.

“People will commit suicide from this, and that creates pain for families and communities - that’s how this can affect people, and I think that reality needs to be put across, because people have got their ears closed to it.”

Toby Perkins, Labour MP for Chesterfield, said he was concerned that many of his constituents would suffer due to the removal of the Universal Credit uplift, and blamed the government’s ‘careless’ spending throughout the pandemic.

“I worry that many people in Chesterfield will be in a perilous situation during this harsh period and that is why Labour demanded that the uplift should stay beyond the pandemic - this £20 is what enables some of them to put food on the table at the end of the week.

“The Government’s chronic mismanagement of the pandemic has caused Britain to suffer the worst recession of any major economy. Now the Government is trying to make low-income families pay as a result of their incompetence.

“They wasted £22bn of taxpayers’ money on a testing system that doesn’t work and spent billions on contracts to Tory donors - but now can’t find the money to support families.”

However, Lee Rowley, Conservative MP for North East Derbyshire, said the cut was necessary to help the country return to its pre-pandemic state.

“We always want to try and help people who have fallen on hard times, whether it is physical, mental or temporary circumstances. That’s the whole point of the welfare system, and we spend hundreds of millions of pounds a year doing that.

“The reason for the uplift was to deal with a very specific set of circumstances around Coronavirus, when we had a large-scale unemployment problem.

“It was the most extraordinary set of interventions to reflect the most extraordinary time of our lives - but now we are coming out of Coronavirus, we also have to start to transition back to where we were pre-Covid, and that means winding down these interventions.

Mr Rowley said the benefit system not only has to assist those struggling financially, but also has to reassure those who fund it that employment opportunities are promoted for people able to work.

He hoped people would take advantage of the country’s expanding job market to find employment for the first time, or secure better paid work, to support themselves financially.

“The benefit system has to work as much as possible for the people who rely on it, but also the people who pay for it. Taxpayers in North East Derbyshire have to have confidence that it is set up in a way that makes sure it is supporting those who need to be supported, while ensuring that those who can work are encouraged to do so.

“We have the most buoyant jobs market that we have had in many years, certainly in my adult lifetime. We have around one million vacancies, for those entering the labour market for the first time and for those looking to transition to higher paid jobs.

“There is a fantastic opportunity to find jobs that enable people to provide for themselves and their families. I hope people who can do so take that opportunity - we want people to get better jobs, better pay and stand on their own two feet.”