Lucy

single mum/full time carer of AuDHD adult. Photo hasn’t been updated for a couple of years.

[Lucy @lucyjws]

@MoneySavingExp So, your daughter has come out of a financially abusive marriage and now you want to ask her for money? 🤔

[Harry Eccles @Heccles94]

Kemi wants you to think that disabled people using PIP to get to work are the problem…

[Lucy @lucyjws]

@Angewaters27 Yeah, I’ve had about 5 in the last week. Never rings for long and I always ignore them.

[Marty @martyuk26]

#GovWelfareChallenge

Before ANY politician votes on welfare policy, they should live on it. Three months. The rate that fits their circumstances. No exceptions. No expenses. No subsidised meals. No second home allowance.

This isn't a party issue. Labour. Conservative. Reform. Lib Dem. ALL of you talk about welfare. NONE of you have lived on it.

The challenge:

Three months on Universal Credit. Whichever rate applies:

Single under 25: £316.98/month
Single 25+: £400.14/month
Couple under 25: £497.55/month
Couple 25+: £628.10/month
Note: those are the APRIL 2026 rates. They DROPPED from 2025. The safety net shrank while rent, energy, and food all rose.

The rules:

No MP salary. No expenses. No Commons subsidised meals. No travel budget. No second home. Just UC and whatever the housing element covers which won't be your full rent because LHA hasn't matched market rents since 2020.

You attend the Jobcentre every two weeks. A work coach tells you to apply for 35 jobs a week. You evidence every application in a journal. You miss an appointment because the bus didn't come you get sanctioned.

You pay your bills from the UC rate:

Electric: -£150
Council tax shortfall: -£30
Water: -£15
Insurance: -£20
Internet: -£20
Phone: -£15

Remaining: £88.58/month on the single over-25 rate. £20.46/week. £2.92/day.

For food. Clothes. Transport. Toiletries. Everything.

The weekly shop:
£50 at Iceland for a family. I costed it this week. Every product linked. Every price verified.
Family of four result: one chicken dinner per week. 100g per person. Four out of seven dinners are lentils. 16 bananas between four people. No other fruit.

Single person result: marginally better. But £2.92/day is a Tesco meal deal. For the ENTIRE day. Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner.

The commute:

DWP considers 90 minutes each way "reasonable." Three hours a day. Plus 8 hours working or job searching. Eleven hours out of the house. The travel costs come from the £2.92/day. A single bus fare can be £2.50. One journey. One way. And the day's food budget is gone.

Week by week:

Week 1: the electricity bill arrives. It takes more than a third of your income. You learn what "prepayment meter" means when it cuts off at 11pm because the credit ran out.

Week 2: the fridge contains lentils, value bread, and long-life milk. You haven't eaten fresh meat in nine days. The microwave costs 3.7p per meal. The oven costs 46p. You use the microwave. Every meal.

Week 3: you stopped going out. A coffee costs £2.50. That's nearly a day's food budget. Your friends stopped asking because you always say no. The walls are very familiar now.

Week 4: the Jobcentre threatens a sanction. You missed the appointment. The bus was cancelled. The next one was in four hours. You walked. It took 90 minutes. You arrived late. "Late is a fail" says the work coach. The sanction docks your UC by 40% for a month.

Month 2: you've applied for 280 jobs. Three interviews. No offers. The Jobcentre asks why you haven't found work. You show them Indeed. 1,964 no-experience jobs for 9 million people in London. The work coach notes "insufficient effort" on your file.

Month 3: someone on X calls you "workshy."

The challenge is for:

@KemiBadenoch you said "if you can work, you should." Live on what you'd leave them with. Then say it again.

@HelenWhately eighteen posts about welfare. Zero days on it. Three months would give you the policy document you haven't published.

@griffitha you announced £47 billion in savings without a financial analyst. Three months on £2.92/day IS your financial analysis.

@JoePJRobertson you said "workshy." Three months on UC. Then use that word to my face.

@patmcfaddenmp you RUN the DWP. You administer the system. Live inside it. See what your work coaches see. Feel what your claimants feel. Then tell Parliament how it's going.

@JohnHealey_MP you set the rates. You approved the cut from 2025 to 2026. Live on the number you signed off. For three months. With the energy bill you didn't shield them from.

@EdDavey you talk about fairness. Prove it. Three months. Same rules. No Lib Dem exceptions.

This isn't about humiliation. It's about UNDERSTANDING. Every policy decision about welfare is made by people who've never experienced it.

Every cut is calculated by people who've never counted the pennies for the electric meter.

Every sanction is designed by people who've never missed a bus they couldn't afford.

Three months. Any rate. Any circumstances. Just LIVE ON IT. Then vote.

#GovWelfareChallenge

https://t.co/eL53voUhtO 35+ charters. Written by someone who knows what £2.92/day actually buys. Because he's lived closer to it than anyone in Parliament ever will.

@UKLabour @TheGreenParty @reformparty_uk @RestoreBritain @Conservatives @LibDems

[Lucy @lucyjws]

@fesshole My ex husband is nearly 60 and he used to call it that. 🙄

[Lucy @lucyjws]

@BexBookaholic There’s a place called Everything Toastie in Hull. Not a chain though

[Jane Milligan🦸‍♀️ @goonchild4]

Folks of X, I know the world looks like it’s going down the pan, but if you are free this Saturday come and visit Spikes Archive and we can laugh together while it all collapses around us. X

[Lucy @lucyjws]

@exitthelemming I’ve managed to grow dragon chilli’s from seed this year. Apparently they’re really hot so I’ve no idea what to do with them. Only grew them as an experiment 😆

[Mr Benn @thebowlerhatman]

The lovely people at Fabulous Films have given me one of these to give away.
You will get it a couple of weeks before it's released.
All you have to do is retweet this tweet & I will select a winner at random.
Good Luck!!
https://t.co/JKUKtlOykc

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

You’ve never seen a cat so clearly roll its eyes.

[Lucy @lucyjws]

My AuDHD allows me one clear sofa cushion. It’s where I sit.

[Capt.Howdy @MLordal]

Poor buses

[NHS Million @NHSMillion]

One NHS, many nationalities.

Huge thanks to every single person who helps keep the NHS going ❤️

[SVX @SilentvillanX]

That ATM got me 😂😂

[Lucy @lucyjws]

@soigomaa Could all hypermobile ladies please, please do some strength training to support your joints. Speaking as an AuDHD 50 year old with multi joint osteoarthritis.

[Lucy @lucyjws]

@shawtyastrology My Sagittarius rising, Gemini moon, mercury in the 9th is staying indoors because eew people! 😆

[Lucy @lucyjws]

I often feel 85, but my dad is only 84 so….🤔

[Jessica O’Donnell 🏈 @heckyessica]

kids are so much better than loser adults