Nick and Margaret: We All Pay Your Benefits
BBC1 HD, BBC1: Thur 10th Jul 9pm - 10pm
Repeat: BBC1 HD, BBC1 (not Northern Ireland) Monday 11:15pm
Repeat: BBC1 Northern Ireland Monday 11:45pm Haves and have nots come face to face over the benefits divide. Or to use the loaded terms of the debate, “strivers” (tax payers) meet “skivers” (jobseekers) to see how they live and how they spend their benefits. It’s a simple but effective way to unravel preconceptions: we watch people judge each other, then we judge them for being judgemental – ideal TV.
It all unfolds in Ipswich, where Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford link the stories and stunts together via conversations held in the backs of taxis. The individuals involved are well cast and there are fascinating discussions about the different choices people make in the world of work – or lack of it.
1/2. First of a two-part special in which former Apprentice colleagues Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford try to find out how much unemployment benefit is enough to survive on - and whether having a job is actually worth it. Travelling to Ipswich, a town with typical out-of-work figures, they bring four claimants and four taxpayers together to compare one another's lives, examine their values and speak their minds. First up are the workers, who explore the claimants' spending habits to see where their own taxes are going.
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