"Single Mum on Universal Credit Faces Nursery Fee Crisis – Now I'm Being Told to 'Be Respectful'"

A FRUSTRATED mother has claimed that she feels as though Universal Credit has got her “over a barrel.”

Lauren Florence, a from the , confirmed that she wasn’t paid for one month of her son’s , but now after complaining, has been told that she needs to “be respectful.”

A mum-of-one has shared her frustrations after Universal Credit didn’t pay her nursery feesCredit: TikTok/@mumlifewithmax Not only this, but Lauren Florence then explained how the benefit system dealt with her complaint, leaving many totally stunnedCredit: TikTok/@mumlifewithmax

Posting on , the , who has a named Max, expressed her frustrations at her situation, leaving many totally stunned.

The acknowledged that she only claims for the childcare element of , whereby she normally gets up to 85% of her childcare costs paid back to her.

Every month, Lauren pays her and then uploads the documents straight onto Universal Credit straight after.

While previously Lauren had “never” had any problems with the process, she recognised that this all changed in April.

She explained: “I’ve never had any issues until the month of April when I did my evidence, I uploaded it and they came back straight away and said, ‘actually, that’s not good enough evidence.’”

Lauren confirmed that the evidence she had uploaded was her nursery bill and her bank statements, to which she went back to and confirmed that she was “physically” unable to get any more evidence.

To this, Lauren was told “don’t worry about it, we can see that you’ve done it – that’s fine.”

However, the then confirmed that weeks later, when she should have been paid her benefits, she wasn’t.

She continued: “Anyway, it comes to my payment this month – no payment, I message them in the journal and they’re like, ‘you didn’t upload your evidence in time, so you’re not getting a payment.’”

Lauren revealed that she was then told to go to a “decision maker,” to fix the issue.

To this, she explained: “When I put in my journal that I’m now really short on and I’ve now got to pay my next nursery bill and it’s late and I need them to pay my last nursery bill, they put in the comments, ‘please be respectful.’”

Stunned by the blunt response, Lauren shared: “I haven’t sworn, I haven’t had an attitude, I’ve just said I need the money to pay for my next and now they’re saying it can take up to three months for a decision maker.”

I’m quite a lot of money down for something that I don’t know how to fix

Lauren Florence

Unsure on what to do next, the mother asked people to share their advice, which she acknowledged would be “greatly appreciated.”

The confused mum then expressed: “I don’t know what to do – I’m for something that I don’t know how to fix.”

Social media users react

Lauren’s clip, which was posted under the username @ mumlifewithmax , has clearly left many open-mouthed, as it has quickly racked up 70,400 views.

And it’s clear that Lauren isn’t the only mother to have had issues receiving her , as numerous other parents raced to the comments to share their similar experiences.

One person said: “ is not fit for purpose. It doesn’t pay single parents to work. If I work more than 16 hours a week I’m worse off!”

Still owe me £1,100 from last August

TikTok user

Another added: “Same, I upload 4/5 pieces of evidence each time and they still question it some times. It’s enough to put me off claiming for it.”

A third commented: “I’ve seen a few people saying the same, they’ve gone really fussy with .”

Meanwhile, someone else chimed in: “Yep I had problems. I gave my invoice in and they were being really hard at accepting it. Almost like they don’t want to help.”

Not only this, but one furious mother claimed: “Still owe me £1,100 from last August.”