MISERLY Tory universal credit payments are causing deep financial hardship for actors, artists and musicians who are being “pushed out of their industries and into destitution,” Equity warned today.

The creative practitioners’ union said research it conducted alongside the University of Warwick reveals that nearly half of those subjected to the benefit’s “minimum income floor,” which cuts support for the self-employed, have been unable to pay bills.

About four in 10 are skipping meals, while 5 per cent have even been forced to leave their home, it stressed. 

An anonymous union member said: “I can no longer afford my own accomodation. 

“I live out of my car, on the offers of others to sleep on their couch or spare bed for a couple of nights and public bathrooms.”

Some 80 per cent said universal credit had not helped them to work in the industry, as opposed to the three-quarters who found the previous social security system beneficial, Equity said. 

General secretary Paul W Fleming slammed the “appalling” findings, saying: “Equity cannot stand by while artists are treated as second-class citizens by the social security system.”