Universal Credit: Inside the Welfare State

The first episode follows the staff and claimants at Peckham Jobcentre in London. New claimant Rachel has recently moved onto Universal Credit after leaving her 27-year career in the NHS to become a carer for her ill parents. Declan, 46, has been made homeless. With 19 days to wait before his next Universal Credit payment, he is forced to sleep in the local park. Staff member Karen has worked in the Jobcentre for over 30 years and reveals she has a second job just to make ends meet. And in Westminster, the team meet Neil Couling, director general of Universal Credit and the person responsible for keeping the reforms on track.

The second part of the series follows the staff and claimants at Toxteth jobcentre in Liverpool, where 45,000 people are already living on Universal Credit. The Jobcentre is the busiest in the city and manager Gemma is under pressure to ensure her staff meet most new claimants every week until they get a job - but with too few staff and too many claimants, it is proving difficult. Having recently been made redundant, 62-year-old Sue struggles with the new system. She has to look for work for 35 hours a week and regularly attend meetings at the Jobcentre - if she doesn’t, her benefits might be reduced. And staff member Jules tries to help 22-year-old Laryssa with a residency test to prove she is entitled to Universal Credit.

The third and final part of this series follows the staff and claimants at Bolton Jobcentre. Universal Credit is designed to help people on short-term and zero-hour contracts – like 20-year-old Jenny, who has recently signed up to the new benefit. She has found herself a job but the fact her benefits are paid a month in arrears means she is struggling to work out how much she has to live off. New Universal Credit claimant Paula gets £1,700 of advance payments to see her through the first five-week wait before her first Universal Credit payment but is stunned to realise that she will only have £532 a month to live off until she has paid the advances back. And at the Department for Work and Pensions headquarters in London, the number of people moving on to Universal Credit from the old system is not as high as predicted. Director general Neil Couling and his team are concerned about whether they will need to delay the end-date to the rollout of Universal Credit.