I'm on benefits - so no landlord would rent my family a house

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/09/landlord-housing-benefits-negative-attitudes-welfare

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After deciding to leave my abusive husband, I needed support from benefits. He had financially supported me and our two children since I left my job to become a housewife.

For me, deciding to claim was an incredibly difficult thing to have to do. After being a professional with financial independence, it did nothing for my self-esteem. I felt I had hit rock bottom and would never be able to get my life back on track.

Benefits provided financial support with housing, a grant for furnishing a new home, allowed me access to legal representation throughout a gruelling court process, and gave me the ability to feed and clothe my children free from domestic abuse. For that, I will be eternally grateful.

But the financial support alone wasn't enough. When I needed to find a home close to my family, the houses in the area were all privately rented. I had countless experiences of calling letting agents only to be told that the landlords did not accept tenants on benefits.

And new research published this week from the Who Benefits? campaign has found that 16% of people supported by benefits said that a landlord or letting agent had refused to let them a property. The campaign commissioned YouGov to survey almost 500 people currently receiving support from benefits and applied their responses to the 5.3 million people receiving working-age benefits. So, around 800,000 people have, like me, been discriminated against by landlords or letting agents. The survey also found that 18% said they'd been treated less favourably by a potential employer or had difficulty accessing a bank account or financial services because they were claiming benefits. Worse, 15% said they had experienced verbal abuse, while 4% reported that they had been physically abused.

I was completely excluded. Without any knowledge about me or my circumstances, letting agents and landlords locked me out of the rental market. They told me I would not be able to rent for "insurance purposes", or because "DSS tenants are more of a risk".

It was possibly the hardest and most desperate time of my life. In the end, I only managed to secure a home when a letting agent personally vouched for my good character to my landlord.

My experience was just one example of how negative attitudes towards people on benefits undermine the support any safety net provides. What's the point of housing benefit if no one will rent you somewhere? I never wanted to claim benefits. It was just the path my life took.

• Kirsty Jones is a pseudonym. The Who Benefits? campaign is run by a coalition of charities, including Crisis, Gingerbread and Mind, to give a voice to people who have been supported by benefits at some point