[user104658]

Finally got around to watching this the other night. I thought it had an important message to send and did so pretty well; illustrating how normal people who genuinely want to earn from their craft, or better themselves to do well in life, can be caught in a cycle that demonises and dehumanises them as "benefits scum".

... However... I have a major fact checking (at best) / sensationalism issue with the film? I mean, I assume the writers actually do know how the system works, but there are some major holes in the narrative there.

First is the character of Daniel himself. He has to come off disability and into Jobseekers allowance and immediately has trouble fulfilling the job search requirements from the word go.

Except... It's made clear that he is at least in his late 50's and is someone who, until his heart attack, had "worked his entire life". Which means he would definitely have full National Insurance spanning decades, and thus, would be getting Contributions Based JSA for several months before being shifted to Income Based JSA. Contributions based JSA has no job search requirement. Hum.

Then there's the other main focus; the single mum and young family. She has two kids and is a young mum. It's made out like her money supply is totally cut off because she's late for a Jobcentre meeting. Except that... as a parent, over 70% of her weekly income should be Child Tax Credits and Child Benefit. They would only be sanctioning the JSA element, they can't sanction the tax credits or child benefit. I'm not saying that people don't still struggle when whacked with a reduced income, I just have issue with bad fact checking, and they intimate that her whole money supply is cut off which is simply not possible .

I guess my main issue is that I *do* fully understand the hardship that people face, and it irks me that a movie designed to draw attention to the issue misrepresents the facts in a way that makes it easy for those who think there is "no issue" to tear it apart?