[user104658]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

He had been on a disability benefit for the last 2yrs ( which is how contribution based JSA is calculated the previous 2 tax years)

Ahh, I might have missed where it was stated that he had been on disability for two years beforehand. It felt like it was implied that his heart attack at work had been recent? My mistake there though if not.

Also you are presuming that the mother has near perfect finances, who has those? We are all robbing peter to pay paul, even if she did have her tax credits how are they alone enough to support a family she may have debts... council tax, water, phone, gas, electric.. finance company..loan shark.. that's before she's bought food.
It would not be enough to live on.

It irks me that even seeing the film it's presumed the writers have overlooked the bureaucracy involved as well as the complex nature of what it means to be living in poverty in England.

That was my issue, though (although she would not be paying council tax). I know that it does happen and I know the reasons; credit card and catalogue debt being major ones that push families into poverty. If they had even suggested that there were debt issues it would have solved that plot inconsistency for me. There was a prime opportunity when the daughter needed new shoes; this is exactly the sort of situation that leads to people turning to things like "Very" and ending up with catalogue debt, avoiding the payments, ending up with debt collectors etc. And as you say, this is the complex nature of poverty in the UK, that mean a shortfall in income CAN be disastrous. It's what needs to be recognised and addressed. They don't even hint at these issues, they massively over simplify it as her "getting no money in the first place" and basically... My problem with it is that it gives the naysayers scope to disregard the message.

"You can feed yourself and your kids and pay for gas and leccy on CTC and Child Benefits", they'll say. And that is, simply, true. You CAN'T when all of the other costs and pressures of modern life (clothing, transport, debts from an earlier life e.g. She was a student and likely, like most students, would have run up a huge overdraft and some credit card debt). The fact that they made it LESS complex is the major problem.