A letter of support for the Labour Party posted in a bus stop has gone viral after being shared on social media yesterday.
The note, which takes aim at the Tories’ welfare reforms and austerity measures, paints a bleak picture of the struggles many people go through to get by today.
It reads:
“Had my benefits taken away.
“Work two jobs now and I still barely make the rent every month.
“Always worried I’ll lose work if I have to take time off to care for sick family members.
“Don’t know how much more of this I can take.
“We have to get the Tories out.
“Register to vote and vote Labour.
“Tell everyone. Please.”
Found on a bus stop. What an amazing idea. Gonna go home and make some of my own about my own life and put some up round my area. Imagine if everyone starts doing this – every bus stop in the country plastered with 100 stories of how the Tories have screwed our lives. pic.twitter.com/IrZIAIXwnQ
— Crystal moth (@Prolapsarian) November 4, 2019
In-work poverty
It comes as new research shows more people than ever are suffering from in-work poverty.
A fresh report from KPMG found that around a fifth of UK jobs pay below the voluntary ‘real’ living wage of £9-an-hour, down from 22 per cent in 2018.
That amounts to a fall of 560,000 workers, meaning there is still an estimated 5.19 million people paid less than the voluntary figure.
Universal credit
Last month Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he would scrap the ‘unmitigated disaster’ of Universal Credit and replace the Tories’ flagship welfare reforms with a social security system to support jobseekers with “dignity and respect”.
He told a crowd of supporters that the welfare state had been “sliced apart, cut apart and destroyed”.
“Universal Credit drives people into debt by a five week wait,” the Labour leader said.
“The two-child policy means that the largest families often have the poorest children, who achieve the least at school.
“And the stress involved in Universal Credit, and the cost of its administration, is massive. What we’re saying is end the two-child policy, end the capability for work assessment test.”
Mr Corbyn also claimed that Universal Credit had led to an “explosion in food banks, rough sleeping and terrible levels of debt”.
Related: Corbyn accuses Tories of Brexit ‘hijack’ to sell out the NHS
