I was investigated for buying my daughter birthday gifts with my benefits – I worried I’d be left with nothing

A SINGLE mother was left "mortified" after The Department for Work and Pensions questioned the money she'd spent on her daughter's third birthday presents. 

Working supply teacher Leonie Berman depends on universal credit to supplement her varying wage - each month her paycheck fluctuates, as do her social security payments. 

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She recently found herself in the centre of a "routine check" which she said felt like "an invasion of privacy", The Big Issue's Isabella McRae reports. 

Berman said an officer questioned "every payment" she had made over a three month span, including money she had spent on her daughter's third birthday.

This comes as the DWP vows to crackdown on fraud and error by increasing surveillance of bank accounts.

But for Berman, this routine check became a months-long ordeal.

The review began to ensure she was receiving the right amount of universal credit payment, but due to "confusion over dates" the check took much longer than anticipated.

Her online banking system gave different payment dates to those expected by the DWP - meaning some of the dates they were requesting statements from did not appear in her account.

Berman said she was threatened with having her payments stopped, which left the single parent feeling "penalised".

She said: “It’s stressful being on universal credit. It’s stressful being a lone parent.”

Despite heading into the Jobcentre to get help from a work coach, the DWP still continued to chase her for information "she could not give".

Over the Christmas holidays, she received a call from an officer at the DWP who went through "every spend" over £100 from May to October.

Berman described the conversation as "absolutely mortifying."

She was even left justifying birthday supplies for her toddler during the conversation with the officer: “She said I spent £100 in May. It was my daughter’s birthday. I felt so embarrassed. It’s like I’m not allowed to spend any money on universal credit. I am a sensible person and I wanted to make sure I had enough money to buy party stuff."

Berman's review is now thankfully complete - with no change to her universal credit.

But the ordeal took "four months of anxiety" to wrap up.

She's also been told she can expect it to happen again, as the DWP continues to do regular reviews on accounts.

She said: "You don’t realise that people using the universal credit system are being degraded like this.”