Viewers react with fury to Channel 4 Dispatches present exposing Britain’s ‘welfare lure’ and hit out on the ‘damaged’ advantages system
Furious viewers have lashed out at Britain’s ‘broken’ welfare system after a Channel 4 documentary exposed worrying cases of people getting the equivalent of a full-time wage on benefits.
The Dispatches programme saw journalist Fraser Nelson speak to three people on welfare as he explored the rise in working-age people on sickness benefits.
Among those was a single mother who broke her pelvis while pregnant and now doesn’t want to return to work because she would get paid less than what she makes through welfare.
The programme also interviewed a part-time taxi driver who claimed he was receiving benefits three years after recovering from a heart operation because the government had not reassessed him.
Nelson also spoke to one person on long-term sickness benefits who admitted he wouldn’t train to become a plasterer after getting better because he would lose the £1,400 a month in welfare he is currently receiving.
In the episode it was claimed that some people who are on benefits make up to £35,000 a year, thousands of pounds more than the national minimum and living wages.
As the show aired last night people took to social media to criticise the system, claiming the programme shows the way benefits are administered in Britain needs an ‘overhaul’.
Gavin, who has been a taxi driver for over 30 years, applied for long-term sickness benefits after undergoing open-heart surgery
Unemployed mother Amy told filmmakers she was too scared to find a job as she could lose her benefits and be unable to provide for her son
The programme sparked anger from people online, with some hitting out at what they saw as the unfairness in the system.
One person wrote: ‘Sickness benefits worth £3,000 more than a minimum wage job. How is that right?
‘Nobody should be better off on benefits than someone who gets out of bed everyday & does a full day’s work It’s just wrong.’
One of the people featured in Britain’s Benefit Scandal: Dispatches was Gavin, who has been a taxi driver for over 30 years.
He applied for long-term sickness benefits after undergoing open-heart surgery, which he said left him struggling to go to the toilet on his own, let alone drive a vehicle.
‘Getting that first bit of financial help was a godsend, I was so relieved, so relieved. It just removes a big, massive burden,’ he said.
But feeling able to work again, Gavin contacted the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), to inform them he was ready to come off his benefits.
It was three weeks before Gavin got a response — and now three years later, he is still receiving the sickness benefits.
‘I was told that they couldn’t change themselves, they couldn’t alter my award claim. I had to wait until I was reassessed which I found pretty peculiar. There was no date.’
When asked how long ago he sent the message, Gavin replied: ‘Best part of three years ago.’
Michael, who receives long-term sickness benefits, told the programme he was reluctant to train as a plasterer because he would lose his £1,400-a-month income
People took to social media after the programme aired last night to express their anger at the ‘unfairness’ of the system, as one person claimed it needs an ‘overhaul’
Gavin said he has sent several messages to the DWP over the last three years, but has given up waiting for a reply.
He now works part-time and receives sickness benefits, which he said is ‘no different’ to the wage he was receiving when he worked full-time.
‘I’m probably working half the hours for the same money. I wanted to highlight how bad things are, this is really important,’ he told Nelson.
‘When you need this help, when you’re at your lowest ill health and you’re at your worst, you can’t get it – you have to wait for it.
‘And then when you don’t need it and you feel life is much better, they won’t stop giving it to you.’
Gavin admitted the system is ‘broken everywhere’.
One person watching the show was incensed by what they had seen, revealing on line how their partner, who is battling cancer, is struggling to claim for sickness pay.
They said: ‘My partner has cancer, always worked , never claimed. She’s now in treatment and we have been told sorry, try again next month.
‘SHE. HAS.CANCER, not a a mild does if anxiety and yet nothing forthcoming for another 8 weeks… absolute joke.’
Another woman added: ‘I’m watching Dispatches on benefits. They mentioned not being able to go back on sickness benefit if a work trial or job doesn’t work out.
‘You could under the old system. You ticked a box “protect your benefits”. It was present in 2008 but gone by 2015.
Gavin has sent several messages to the DWP over the last three years, but has given up waiting for a reply
Gavin now works part-time and received sickness benefits, which he said is the same amount as if he returned to work full-time
‘It was a real safety net to help people get back into work from sickness and was applicable in the first 12 months of coming off benefits. I know this because I was pushed from SSP into the old incapacity benefit, even though I was still employed.
‘When I went back to work, the advisor in the job centre suggested I tick the box and I am SO pleased I did. Within 12 months I was told by the hospital to give up work. I fought against bad health but in the end I had to succumb. it took years to get to me as well as I am now.’
Others also criticised the show for demonising disabled people, as they claimed the assumptions they earn ‘£35,000 per year’ were fake.
One person wrote: ‘The system is broken, it doesn’t need finances ripped from homes needing it… it needs turned inside out. Train staff, actually staff it with capable people. Remove the barriers.’
Nelson says on the programme that he has since found out the DWP stopped its reassessments during lockdown and never properly re-started them.
Therefore, the number of people taken off benefits has fallen from several hundreds a day to barely 10 a day now.
MailOnline has approached the Department for Work and Pensions for comment.
Elsewhere in the programme, Nelson spoke to single mother Amy from Keighley near Bradford, who said she is too scared to find a job and risk losing her benefits because it may mean she might not make enough money to provide for her son.
Amy (right) from Keighley features Britain’s Benefits Scandal on Channel 4 tonight. It is presented by political journalist Fraser Nelson (left)
The 30-year-old said when she was younger, she had dreams of becoming a barrister but but joked that her ‘pelvis had other plans’.
While watching her son Alfie, eight, at the playground, the single mother said: ‘Being pregnant basically broke my pelvis so it needed fusion surgery to put it back and keep it in place.
‘I need a walking stick to move or else it’s painful, or I’ll fall over or I can’t go a certain way.
‘I am in pain all day every day so I do suffer with mental health issues as well. PTSD, anxiety, depression, and things like that.’
Due to her limited mobility, Amy claims long-term sickness benefits from the government and she has never worked a full-time job.
‘It sounds awful that, doesn’t it?’ Amy said. ‘I’d like one but the issue is finding something I would be able to do consistently without making my son suffer and myself suffer and losing money.’
Nelson also spoke to Michael who is looking to retrain as a plasterer and has applied to go to college to carry out his NVQ Level 3, which he hopes would get him a ‘decent job’ at the end of it.
But he claims in the programme he was told starting the training course could cost him his benefits.
‘When I contacted the Job Centre they said you would lose your benefits, you would lose all your capability benefits because your plastering it’s classed as working.
‘If you are in a classroom doing Maths or English it’s classed as learning, it’s fine.’
Michael said he currently receives £1,400 at present, so in order to return to work he would have to ‘take the hit’ and potentially earn less in the long-run.
When asked by Nelson if he really wanted to do that, Michael said: ‘I want to get a job and be independent like other people.
‘I would rather be successful like other people, going to work, getting up in the morning and coming back home with friends and family – that’s what I want to do, I want to be like that.’
Sam Thomas, of the charity Z2K, told Nelson you can undertake work and training if you claim the highest rate of sickness benefits, but he admitted ‘it is true that if you undertake work or training under the current system there is a risk the DWP could look to reassess your benefit award.’
Fraser is a British political journalist, who previously edited The Spectator until Michael Gove took over this year.
At the start of the one-hour documentary, Fraser declares that the benefits system is in crisis and the ‘greatest challenge the new government faces’.
He goes on to say that seven per cent of the working population claim long-term sickness benefits – and 900,000 more are set to join them by the time the next election rolls out.
This is the equivalent of losing the combined workforce of Birmingham and Glasgow.
Britain’s Benefits Scandal: Dispatches is available to steam on Channel 4oD.
