THE way that universal credit (UC) is being handled has become a human rights issue for women, single mum Thuto Mali told MPs today.

Former BBC journalist Ms Mali was one of four single mums who explained to the Commons work & pensions committee how the Tories’ new flagship benefit system is posing problems in both women’s work and home life, particularly in relation to childcare.

They said that the system, coupled with high upfront nursery costs, means that being employed often means being only slightly better off than stay-at-home parents.

Londoner Ms Mali said: “Everyone talks about money … but they don’t talk about the human cost.

“They don’t talk about the time I am now going to be out of the workplace and how I’m going to re-enter with a massive gap in my forties.

“We already know about the inequality in pay and everything else, so it is almost like a women’s human rights issue as well as ... it being a benefit thing. It’s just very shortsighted.”

Ms Mali added she was forced to turn down a job with a £32,000 salary because, after paying £1,800 a month for a full-time nursery place for her son, she would be left with £60 a month for bills.

Speaking before the hearing, she said that she is set to move onto universal credit within months and expects to be "significantly worse off" once she starts working after paying out for rent, council tax and childcare.

Save The Children has said that, under UC, families have to pay the costs of childcare upfront, meaning that they may have to pay up to £1,000 to get a childcare place on returning to work. The charity suggests that families are put at risk of debt by having to wait up to six weeks to get support for these costs reimbursed, by which time they will have had to pay for their next month's childcare.

The charity says, once fully extended across the country, half a million families will be getting childcare support through the new benefit.

Vikki Waterman, who has two daughters, said she had to pay £1,300 upfront for childcare before she returned to work, which the UC system took five weeks to repay. She was also fined £50 by the nursery because a late benefit payment resulted in her being two days behind in childcare payments.

She told MPs: “We want to be able to go to work and to provide for our own families and, at the minute, it seems as if there is a roadblock everywhere we turn.”