Week 1/52: When a single mum on a zero hours contract applies for Universal Credit two weeks before Christmas and spends three out of the five week wait for payment with lights out, heating off and blankets on to keep her and her six year old son warm #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 2/52: When a lady fleeing a decade of domestic violence and relocated in a new location by Women's Aid applies for Universal Credit and is told at her first meeting she will not be able to claim because she left behind all evidence of her identity #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 3/52: When a young woman refuses the offer of sanitary items at a foodbank saying she has not had a period for several months having been informed by her GP earlier that day that she is undernourished due to a persistent lack of calories #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 4/52: When a blind jobseeker asks, at his first appt for UC, if he can receive letters by post in braille, then receives his first payment followed by a letter in print he cannot read requesting a meeting he does not attend and he is sanctioned
#StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 5/52: When a mum, appealing a benefit sanction and down to her last tin of beans, has to ask her ex partner if their six year old daughter can stay with him for the next month to ensure she gets a proper meal each night #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 6/52: When a woman living 3.5 miles from her local foodbank is awaiting her first UC payment and sets off from her home at 6am braving 80 mph winds (Storm Ciara) to get to the Saturday foodbank session btwn 10-12am. PS. A volunteer drove her home #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 7/52: When a young man in receipt of Universal Credit, and caring full-time for his disabled sister, is asked to leave her outside the front door with a security guard while he signs on because they cannot get her wheelchair through the front door #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 8/52: When a lady born in 1954, who had to work five more years after a change to pension regulations, is made redundant with six months to retirement and DWP send her on a CV production course and training to learn how to use a computer #WASPI #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 9/52: When a first-time dad discreetly informs a midwife in a maternity unit he will need to leave his fiancé, who is in early labour, for an hour to attend attend a Job Centre appt having been told he may be sanctioned if he does not attend #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 10/52: When a successful tree surgeon gives up work due to an injury, uses savings, goes to foodbank, applies for UC and waits five weeks with lights out and radiator off to pay for his daughter's karate lessons when she comes to stay at weekends
#StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 11/52: When a 52 year old lady walks three miles to her local foodbank, having been referred by a money advisor, and finds it shut with a notice on the front door saying they will be closed for the foreseeable future due to coronavirus
#StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 12/52: When a young self-employed and single business owner running a cafe on a tight profit margin has to pay off all her staff, close her doors and spends her Friday applying for Universal Credit and making her first ever visit to a foodbank #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 13/52: When a disabled lady, at home without access to her local village store which shut after the owner contracted Covid19, does her first online shop but has to wait a week before securing a delivery and is forced to go four days without food #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 14/52: When a man who was sanctioned has not eaten for almost a week, walks two extra miles to sign on following the closure of his nearest Job Centre, collapses on arrival and security staff at DWP call the police instead of an ambulance
#StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 15/52: When an infirm lady three years from retirement and recently made redundant from a business that went bust, has to stop for breath on the way to her fourth job centre appointment, arrives three minutes late and is sanctioned #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 16/52: When a young woman newly unemployed due to #Covid19 applies for UC and is told because of a backlog in applications it will be four weeks until her telephone appt. and at least 70 days until first payment
[Story in @Evening_Tele on Mon.] #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 17/52: When the daughter of injured bricklayer, who has no broadband and uses internet at a library shut due to Covid-19 to update his UC journal, logs in for him when he is not paid and she says reason for non-payment is failure to update journal #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 18/52: When a lady with 7p left in her purse, who usually spends days in a warm library applying for jobs and is now at home wrapped in a jumper and using tealights at night, sells her fridge so she can continue to heat her home during lockdown #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 19/52: When a man, who was sanctioned for refusing to apply for a 12 hour per week job in Ayr when he lives 140 miles away in Arbroath, tells foodbank volunteers DWP contacted him to say his sanction will be lifted during the Covid-19 outbreak
#StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 20/52: When a woman is in receipt of DWP new enterprise allowance for her new start up business and her husband secures part-time work, cancelling their UC claim without consultation, leaving her business and their family £400 worse off #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 21/52: When a student, who works at a golf resort each summer but cannot this year because it is closed, reluctantly applies for UC and is told that, to be eligible, he would have to give up his course in September
[Story in @Evening_Tele on Mon.] #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 22/52: When a lady, aged 94, is living at the top of a tenement block too scared to leave home for food as Scotland enters lockdown and has no one to shop for her before she goes five days without eating and is found starving at home by volunteers #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 23/52: When a single mum and NHS employee of 11 years uses a foodbank for the first time because she cannot take extra shifts and leave her girls aged 12 and 10 at home alone nor send them for food at breakfast clubs because they are all closed
#StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 24/52: When a first-time mum, planning to breastfeed her newborn daughter because it costs less than formula, turns up at the foodbank hoping to receive formula having been told by her midwife that she is too under-nourished to produce breast milk #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 25/52: When a family sit down to dinner and tell their five year old that, because daddy didn't get paid by his employer on time, the lights will soon go out and he can't watch Paw Patrol again until pennies put more money in the electricity meter #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 26/52: When the cooker an infirm pensioner is using to make food each night breaks down and, having resorted to eating food cold including tins of uncooked beans, she calls her local Covid support team and is told this is not a priority
#StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 27/52: When a father of two gives up a well-paid career as a tree surgeon to take care of his son and daughter after the death of his wife and runs out of savings, defaults on mortgage, loses the family home and all three end up sleeping in a car #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 28/52: When a self-employed mum, who does not receive an expected payslip for contract work, asks DWP if she can report expenses later than usual and is told if she does not report within the month they will close her Universal Credit claim
#StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 29/52: When a lady on her way to an appointment at her local Job Centre is injured by walking into a faulty automatic door on arrival and, despite receiving help from DWP staff, is sanctioned for having missed her appointment #StoriesBehindTheStatistics

Week 30/52: When a gran, despite providing medical evidence she is disabled, has her PIP stopped and mobility car removed by the DWP before discovering she has cancer and dies four months on weighing only three stone [Story in @Evening_Tele on Mon.] #StoriesBehindTheStatistics