Skint Britain: Friends without Benefits Episode 1 Clip

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Skint Britain: Friends Without Benefits

New three-part series starts Wednesday 13th February at 9pm

Channel 4

When the residents of Hartlepool became guinea pigs for the roll out of Universal Credit - the new benefits system aimed at getting people on benefits back to work - a series of events were triggered that even the government didn’t predict. Far away from the Westminster bubble, the stark realities of the tougher new system on people’s lives come sharply into focus. Spiralling crime, homelessness, loan sharks, hunger and evictions hit the town as claimants struggle to survive. In the words of one local resident, “it’s Beirut”, while another calls it “absolute chaos”.

Episode 1:
Starving and penniless, unemployed 20 somethings Nathan and Abbey take their dog Twister into the fields around Hartlepool to hunt wild rabbit for their tea.

Meanwhile in town, the queues at the food bank grow as people get their benefits docked - or sanctioned - for failing to comply with Universal Credit’s new strict work search rules. Partially blind David has his payment reduced leaving him just £5 to live off for the entire month after his disability is reassessed and he’s told he must now look for work. But with no phone or internet connection the largely online Universal Credit system brings him to the brink.

Single-mum Terri’s job hunt in the town with the UK’s highest number of jobless households isn’t looking promising, but there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

Elsewhere, Nathan’s mother, cancer survivor Tracy receives devastating news about her health that could put further strain on her finances under the new system. But a ray of hope comes in the form of her 15-year-old daughter Tamsyn, a promising drummer angling for her big break in the hope of escaping the benefits trap.

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