In The Press

Ashton-under-Lyne Jobcentre Activist Charlotte Hughes Benefit Sanctions Interview

Charlotte Hughes, a claimant activist who regularly demonstrates outside Ashton-under-Lyne jobcentre, interviewed about benefit sanctions.

Sanctioned While Pregnant

19 year old Eleanor Coulthard was sanctioned whilst pregnant. She subsequently developed Bell’s palsy, a facial paralysis associated with stress.

Every Week Charlotte Sees Desperation First Hand – Outside The Job Centre

Her group have been helping jobseekers exposed to the vagaries of Britain’s benefit system. She says people feel like criminals in a culture of fear

Read article on theguardian.com

I Volunteer to Help Vulnerable People The Jobcentre Lets Down

A broken universal credit system means local volunteers hand out food parcels and give advice to those with nowhere to turn

Read article on theguardian.com

Campaigning Every Thursday for Past Four Years

Campaign embers go outside the Job Centre Plus, on the corner of Old Street and Delamere Street, Ashton, to protest against ‘unfair’ changes to the benefit system and support those who have fallen victim. The group is particularly focused on the changes for disabled people.

Read article on Manchester Evening News

Various Articles in Morning Star

Read articles on Morning Star

Universal Credit claimants say it is like like ‘hell on earth’

Charlotte Hughes, along with other local volunteers, has been handing out food parcels outside Ashton Under Lyne Jobcentre for four years. She tells Sky News about the struggles faced by people as a result of Universal Credit.

Read article on Sky News

‘Who is going to feed my kids?’ – stress, hunger and dire warnings amid ‘chaotic’ Universal Credit roll-out

Evictions, homelessness, debt and even suicide will all rise if the government’s ‘chaotic’ Universal Credit roll-out continues across Greater Manchester, ministers have been warned.

Read on Manchester Evening News

Charlotte Hughes & Gill Thompson on BBC

Britain’s benefit sanctions: ‘You’re not even human’

How sanctions on the UK’s unemployed are creating an impoverished and desperate underclass.

Read on Aljazeera

Credit Isn’t Due

As the political battle over the planned roll-out of Universal Credit heats up, the stories of delayed payments, harsh sanctions and the indifference of the system come to the fore

Read article on Big Issue North

Looking Glass World of Work

Your employer offers you extra hours but the jobcentre demands you go to an appointment. Welcome to the cruel Alice in Wonderland world of in-work conditionality

Read on Big Issue North

Fighting unemployment, poverty and austerity – Charlotte Hughes

The authors of austerity are in Manchester for their annual Conservative Party Conference. With their refusal to halt the roll out of Universal Credit it looks like they may be doubling down on their poverty inducing agenda. Speakers at a Mary Quaile Club event provided evidence that the forces