Benefits Britain: Life on the Dole

Episode 5 (2x5)

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Tony ʻScrapʼ Taylor is a well-known figure in the community doing odd jobs and collecting scrap. He claims just £51.40 a week but does odd jobs for food, enabling his benefits money to go a bit further. If you need something in Jaywick then Tony is the man who can sort it out! Engaged twenty somethings Claire and Luke have recently moved to Jaywick from Canning Town in search of a better life. They have a baby son called Louis and Claire has two older children from a previous relationship. They all live in a two-bedroom house alongside a host of animals including two dogs, three snakes and guinea pigs – all supported by benefits. Claire has been on benefits for most of her life and Luke finds it hard to get a job as he has a criminal record. Claire does not see the point in working as she would earn no more then she already gets on benefits. “I used to be able to earn a thousand something a month, but I get that on benefits so whatʼs the point of me working?” she asks. Michelle moved to Jaywick from Chelmsford. She has a lengthy criminal record and was first called up in front of a judge when she was only 12. Michelle has a ten-year-old son whom she rarely sees, a fact which she finds very upsetting. A cycle of drinking, aggression and fighting has led to her being fined for abusing police officers and she has been given an electronic tag following her latest attack on a fireman. When her house is burgled Michelle must stay somewhere else for the night, but the tag is registered to her home address, which gets her into trouble with the police again. Stuck between poverty and the police and always close to returning to prison, Michelle is walking a tightrope.