THURSDAY’s demo — part of a regular anti-sanctions protest outside Ashton under Lyne jobcentre — was a mixed bag but very positive overall.

Not long after we arrived a local business owner who claimed to be a Tory started shouting that the poor should go hungry because they do nothing but sit around doing nothing for society. You know the rhetoric.

He was very loud and very insulting to the unemployed people who were talking to us and taking our leaflets. He claimed that they don’t turn up for interviews.

We tried to explain that when the jobcentre sends people to interviews they often force unqualified people to attend. People also can’t afford the transport if the interviews are not local, so they don’t fail to attend on purpose.

They know if they don’t turn up then they will get sanctioned, but sometimes it’s not an option — they just can’t attend.

The businessman then stated that claimants mess interviews up on purpose. We replied that this just wasn’t true, reiterating that the jobcentre sends unqualified inexperienced people to these interviews and they haven’t got a clue how to even handle an interview. But the man wasn’t listening.

At the time a young man was standing next to me. He was unemployed, having been made redundant after working for 10 years, and said that he’d doing his best to find a job. He was very polite, well mannered and did not raise his voice once. He could have shouted back but he didn’t, because he understood that being abusive to others isn’t the answer.

This unemployed man looked on the ranting businessman with pity and said he felt sorry for him, because it could well be him standing in front of the jobcentre in a few months. No-one knows when or if it will be their turn and if you have a job you should hold onto it, he added. The angry man walked away and peace returned.

A lovely 25-year-old woman started talking to us. She was with her mum, who was in temporary accommodation after losing her home due to the bedroom tax. 

The young woman is also homeless and is sofa surfing. She is close to giving up, explaining that she had tried to do everything that the jobcentre told her to but she couldn’t.

It’s so hard when you’re homeless, she said. She can’t use computers because she doesn’t have one and she has sold her mobile phone. She said her whole time is spent trying to find food and somewhere to stay. If she doesn’t she will go hungry and cold.

Being on the streets is very dangerous for a woman. She had a good moan about that and admitted that she has had to resort to shoplifting to survive. I understand why she is doing this — it’s out of desperation, not because she just feels like it.

She started crying and said that she was so glad that we were there because we care, so we told her about our Tuesday advice session. It’s shocking that people have to live like this. No-one deserves to be living like this. We are the sixth richest country in the world and we have people starving and living on our streets. It’s disgusting and it shouldn’t be happening.

Another young woman started talking to me. She’s a single mum and had been put on universal credit. She’s been sanctioned so far for four months, with no money in that time. What for? For not attending an appointment that she wasn’t informed of. So now both herself and her child are going hungry. She spends her time trying to find food to feed her child.

I believe that universal credit was created to do just this — impose unjustifiable sanctions. Before universal credit they couldn’t sanction tax credits. Now they can because it’s all under the umbrella of universal credit.

We have over a million children pushed into poverty by austerity. Do they count the children that are sanctioned? It won’t be long before a child starves because of a parent’s sanctioning. David Cameron, you have blood on your hands.

While I stood talking an unknown man ran up to me, gave me three boxes of chocolates, said “Thank you,” and ran off. We put them on the table, shared them out and enjoyed them. We were very touched by this, so thank you so much to that man, whoever you are.

Don’t forget that it’s our demo tomorrow at 12 midday outside Ashton under Lyne town hall. We are peacefully protesting against the phase 2 troubled families scheme that I exposed (M Star March 27).

Please come along, bring yourselves, your banners and placards. We also need to borrow a PA system as we have no money to buy one, and we need leaflets. If anyone can help please let me know. We don’t receive funding from anyone.

This day of action is supported by Unite in the community and our local rep will be there if anyone wants to join the union.

• Charlotte Hughes is the Green Party parliamentary candidate for Ashton under Lyne. She blogs at thepoorsideoflife.wordpress.com, where this article first appeared.