Share this post:

It’s Friday the 13th as I write this. I’m not superstitious — but I have just been stamped-on… by the system that is supposed to be supporting me.

As many of you know, Vox Political is now my full-time work.

I create articles and videos, maintain two mailing lists, publish multiple times a day, and run donation campaigns — all in the hope of keeping independent political journalism alive in a media landscape that does everything it can to bury it.

What you might not know is that I still have to claim Universal Credit.

Because I’m self-employed, and because I’m working hard to make this a profitable business, the DWP has classed me as being in “gainful self-employment”.

That doesn’t mean I’m expected to be earning even the minimum wage quite yet; it means I am deemed to have the potential to do so, within a year.

And that means I was supposed to have a 12-month grace period in which I could build up the business and grow my income without being penalised for not meeting the government’s minimum income floor.

Guess what happened?

If you surmised that the grace period didn’t happen, you’re exactly right.

This morning, I got a call from my landlords. My rent payment hadn’t come through. And when I checked, I found my Universal Credit claim had been zeroed – reduced to nothing — not because I’d done something wrong, but because the DWP had arbitrarily decided I should already be earning more.

The fact that I have not yet met their projected minimum income threshold was taken to mean I don’t qualify for support — even though I’m doing everything I can to create a working business and contribute to the public discourse, and even though I had been told I have a year in which to make it work.

There was no warning.

No letter (or email).

No flag raised in my account.

Just silence — until the rent was missing and the questions came… from my landlords.

Of course I called Universal Credit and politely raised Hell.

And I must be fair: the person dealing with my call listened, and contacted a senior officer with my details.

They then contacted me via the online system and said there seemed to be an error and the minimum income floor requirement appeared to have been activated early.

The upshot is that I’m told it will likely be sorted out.

The grace period may be reinstated (or should that be “instated”, having not been there in the first place?) and I might not have to survive without rent support for the rest of the year.

But the damage is done.

I cannot now be sure of the support on which I should be able to rely.

It could be pulled out from under me at any moment – or so it feels.

So my situation – and the future of This Site – now seems much more precarious than it did at the start of the week.

And so, it seems, is that of every other self-starter who tries to rely on the State to build a business.

Because this isn’t just about me.

This is about how the UK’s benefit system treats people who try to make something real; something independent; something of value.

If you want to sit on your hands and tick boxes until you get a job working for someone else, the DWP is happy to let you.

But try to create something on your own terms — try to earn, to grow, to break out of dependency — and it seems the system will punish you… unless you succeed immediately.

There is no tolerance for slow, steady and solid growth.

No patience for building an audience (in my case – a customer base in others’).

No understanding of the time it takes to turn a public service — which my kind of journalism is — into a stable income.

It’s as though you’re only allowed to be self-employed if you fail.

This is not a plea for sympathy.

I’m still here.

I’m still working (obviously).

But I want readers to understand what I’ve discovered about what happens when someone with vision tries to stand up and build something — and the government decides that the very effort is grounds for cutting off your support.

It’s ironic – considering the government spending review that happened on Wednesday, if I was already rich, Rachel Reeves would probably be throwing mountains of cash in my direction.

Instead, Liz Kendall has snatched away the pittance I’ve been getting.

And if it’s happening to me, it’s happening to other people too.

Thanks for reading.

— Mike

👉 If you’d like to help keep Vox Political going, and get a copy of my reissued book Strong Words and Hard Times, you can do that here: https://ko-fi.com/voxpolitical

Share this post: