Hi,
Last week, I watched the first episode of this programme. After the programme, I had some doubts about whether the producers had established a balance between the factual presentation of the hardship experienced by people who have to survive on UC, the unfairness of the system (e.g. a five week wait for the first payment and ridiculous sanctions) and the need to provide entertaining television.
This week, I watched the second episode and became intensely angry. In my opinion, this is not an objective portrayal of how people are struggling with a benefits system that has so many flaws; it is a very poorly presented attempt to vilify and stereotype people who have the misfortune to be out of work.
People on UC are not: drug dealers, shoplifters, scrap metal thieves who steal wash basins and dress up like idiots to raid the local crack den.
Universal credit is an attempt to make the welfare system easier to manage by merging a number of benefits together. In principle, this would be a welcome change because the old system meant individuals had to make separate claims for each benefit and many people missed out on finance to which they were entitled.
However, there have been immense problems with rolling out UC. The problems are accentuated because claims and logs have to be submitted online and because 'sanctions' are issued if individuals fail to meet certain target related to evidencing work related activities and job searches. There is research that suggests the sanctions do not work (I will submit a link later).
The young people with whom I work on a supported internship are all in receipt of UC. They have learning disabilities and their internship is part of the work related activities that will help them to find paid employment (we hope).
My son is on UC and is not able to work at the moment (he is in residential care).
My neighbour claims UC and fervently searches for work. He is nearly sixty and has worked hard most of his life.
The people in these examples would never dream of engaging in criminal activity, even though they struggle to make ends meet. Furthermore, at the end of the programme, there was a short script from the DWP stating that there is no evidence of a correlation between UC sanctions and crime. There is, however a link between sanctions and suicide www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/2018/november/universal-credit-linked-suicide-risk-finds-new-research.
The programme in question is avoiding the real issues for the sake of biased entertainment.