A DISABLED Musselburgh woman has hit out at East Lothian’s Universal Credit (UC) scheme, saying it has “broken” her.

Former nurse Carole Bootland, 49, who uses a wheelchair as she suffers from degenerative disc disease in her back, received just £11.04 which she had to live on for a month after transferring from a council house in West Lothian.

The 49-year-old divorced grandmother said she was in danger of being evicted from her two-bedroom home at Eskdale Mews because she was £1,122 in arrears with her rent after her Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) was deducted from her benefits.

She said, in total, her benefits had now dropped from £809 to £600 a month under Universal Credit.

“Two hundred pounds is a lot of money to lose – I now have the lowest disability award element,” she said. “This is dreadful and it has broken me.”

In July, Mrs Bootland moved into a house at Eskdale Mews, a development run for disabled people by Blackwood Homes.

Originally from Portsmouth, she was looking forward to starting a new life in the harbour town of Musselburgh.

She explained: “I thought at the time that it’s only 20 miles down the road, an easy swap and is not going to make a difference.”

East Lothian began a trial of the new digital UC system at the start of this financial year, which rolls a number of benefit payments into one, including housing benefit, giving it to the tenant, instead of directly to the council.

Mrs Bootland said: “I had to make a claim for Universal Credit but was allowed to keep my Employment and Support Allowance going.

“I was told to go online and fill out a form. It is not as straightforward as it appears. I carried on getting my ESA and then I started getting letters from Blackwood saying I was in rent arrears.”

She claimed that, by September 24, there had still been no rent payment from July 11 but she was told by the jobcentre there would be a payment on September 26. She said two payments of £200 were made for July, August and September to cover the rent of £414 a month.

She explained that £400 was given to Blackwood, which requested the rent be directly paid to it because of the arrears.

Mrs Bootland said: “I had no income until I got my October award of £11.04 for the month. For the first 11 weeks, I got nothing but was still getting my ESA, so that was fine but that was stopped on September 24.

“They deducted what I was getting in ESA from the rent, so they only paid Blackwood £200, saying I had to pay the difference.”

The Department for Work and Pensions has agreed to pay £356 towards Mrs Bootland’s rent but decided she was only entitled to a one-bedroom property, meaning she now has to pay the difference of £68 a month on the rent for her two-bedroom home.

A total of £31.92 a month is being deducted from her benefits to cover her rent arrears.

Her plight was taken up by East Lothian’s SNP MP George Kerevan, who said: “She moved to Musselburgh for a better life, and found herself penalised by the UK Government’s Universal Credit scheme, which is being rolled out there in advance of the rest of Scotland.

“The Department for Work and Pensions has failed her over and over again. Universal Credit is a poorly conceived scheme operated by staff who have not been properly trained.

“As a result, Carole has been given conflicting and inappropriate information. No one should be expected to live for a month on £11.04.

“It is not her fault that she was allocated a two-bedroom flat when she came to Musselburgh.

“My staff continue to work for a better outcome for Carole and I raise the problems with this inhuman new benefits system at every opportunity I have in Parliament.”

A DWP spokesman said: “We are contacting Mrs Bootland to explain her benefit payments and to let her know that her payments are up to date.”

A spokesman for Blackwood Homes commented: “We appreciate how frustrating the welfare reform changes have been for many tenants across the country.

“In this particular case, we have provided a high level of support for our tenant, including working with the appropriate agencies, including the DWP, on the tenant’s behalf.

“As the tenant’s housing benefit has changed we have been supporting them to manage their finances to ensure we mutually agree a solution. We will continue to give advice and support as we have done since the tenant took up tenancy with Blackwood.”

A spokesman for East Lothian Council explained: “East Lothian Council’s homelessness prevention team offers advice and assistance to clients who present with difficulties around UC and are at risk of homelessness. We would advise anyone who may be experiencing difficulties around UC to seek advice as soon as possible.”