Home Secretary Priti Patel was confronted by a police officer who is working overtime just to get by and feed her son.
Det Con Vicky Knight of North Wales Police left Ms Patel squirming at the annual Police Federation conference on Tuesday, after describing her finances at the end of the month.
Ms Patel had just made a speech expressing how proud she was of police while unveiling plans to give volunteer police offers the powers to use Tasers.
But answering questions at the Manchester event, Ms Patel admitted she was not "at the table" for pay negotiations.
The Police Federation is currently at loggerheads with the Government over plans to freeze officers' pay.
Ms Knight who has been working in the police for 23 years asked the Home Secretary if she could survive on £1,200 or £1,400 a month.
"I went to see an accountant and the advice was leave the police, work for 22 hours a week and claim benefits, you will be better off. How can that be right?"
The Det Con even claimed she is paid “a couple of hundred pounds a month more than the workers in McDonald’s flipping burgers” and less than her “local manager at Lidl”.
"We are desperately struggling to do the job that we love and to make ends meet at home," she told Ms Patel.
"So I need you to be on our team and to help us, to represent us... to get us fair pay."
Ms Patel thanked Det Con Knight for sharing her story before adding: "I think it just really illustrates so strongly and powerfully why we need to actually find solutions to pay issues and actually give you the support that you rightly deserve.
"We have to move this forward. You have that commitment from me, you absolutely do."
Last year the federation withdrew from the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB), an independent system that sets salaries, after widespread outrage over the Government’s decision to freeze pay for officers who earn more than £24,000.
By contrast, NHS staff were given a 3% increase and firefighters and local government workers a 1.5% rise.
