A SINGLE mother who has not eaten properly for two weeks and cries at night due to the cost-of-living crisis said that the wait for government payment to ease her struggle is “heartbreaking.”

More than eight million households on means-tested benefits are set to automatically receive direct payments of £326 from this week until the end of July from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – with the second instalment of £324 to be transferred in the autumn.

Sarah, whose name has been changed, said she “prayed” she would receive the payment on Thursday but was still waiting yesterday morning.

The 23-year-old, with a young son from the West Midlands, said her only income is £485 a month from universal credit as she is unable to work after an injury she got while pregnant left her in chronic pain and in need of a back operation.

She said: “£485 isn’t a lot with the rising prices, so when they said, ‘July 14, you get this payment’, it was a relief knowing I don’t have to worry for a bit with getting food on my plate and choosing to eat or pay [my bills].”

Sarah has had to forgo eating enough food for two weeks to make sure her son eats “no matter what.”

“He eats well. I will always put him first,” she said.

“[I eat] small amounts, like one meal a day, or I would not eat for two days to save on food, so it lasts.

“[The payment] was going towards my electric bill and to get a big food shop so I don’t have to worry for the next three weeks about what to have for dinner, and now I have to wait and see when or if I get it,” she added.

A DWP spokesman said: “All eligible households will automatically receive the first instalment, and no-one needs to worry they will miss out.”

Poverty Alliance director Peter Kelly said the grants were long overdue and “underline the importance of a decent social security system that we can all rely on.”

But he warned that they “won’t cover all the rising costs people face,” adding that some groups – like larger families, or those who have only recently become unemployed – will need more support.

Mr Kelly told the Star: “The UK government must keep its plans under constant review.

“At the moment, more and more of us are being dragged towards a current of poverty.

“The present crisis is the latest example of a decades-long injustice, where too many people’s incomes have been reduced to levels where they don’t cover daily costs, and where the social security net that we all rely on has been deliberately cut.

“We need to build on this emergency support, and start the work of redesigning our economy so that work provides security and dignity, as well as renewing and rebuilding our social security system, so that it provides the proper protection that households need and deserve.”

Victoria Benson, chief executive of Gingerbread, the charity for single parent families said:
“There is a stark and marked difference between the experience of single parents and the rest of the UK population. People come to be single parents for lots of reasons — some because of bereavement, some because of domestic abuse or relationship breakdown, others have decided to ‘go it alone’ from the start. Single parents are resourceful and resilient but they have a breaking point and the cost-of-living crisis is pushing many beyond it.”