Skint Britain: MP calls for Government re-think on benefits policy after first episode of TV show filmed in Hartlepool

The Skint Britain: Friends Without Benefits show aired on Channel 4 on Wednesday. Picture: Channel 4.

Hartlepool MP Mike Hill has vowed to call for a benefits policy re-think after the airing of first of the three-part 'Skint Britain' series filmed in Hartlepool.

Mr Hill has reacted after the new Channel 4 show Skint Britain: Friends Without Benefits, aired on Wednesday night.

The three-part series takes a look at how people in the town have been affected by the Government’s new Universal Credit system, which replaces six other benefits with a single monthly payment for people out of work or on a low income.

Hartlepool was one of the pilot areas for the roll-out of the new system and the new show aims to portray the stark realities of Universal Credit on peoples’ lives.

After the show, Mr Hill said he plans to lobby the Government and speak to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Amber Rudd to rethink the implementation of the benefit system.

He said: “I have been lobbying the Government of the need to slow down the implementation of Universal Credit and to rethink the application for months on end now, since it was introduced as a pilot scheme in Hartlepool.

Trevor Pickard and carer Tracy Taylor with their daughter Tamsyn. Image by Channel 4.

“I am constantly reminding the Government of the issues that arise out of the transfer to the Universal Credit and signs are that the Government is beginning to listen because the roll out across the rest of the UK has dramatically slowed.

“Hopefully one of the lessons learnt from the programme will be the realisation that people have been hit hard by Universal Credit, people are suffering, being pushed in to poverty and their health is being affected unnecessarily.

“I hope the lesson from the programme will be that the Government completely rethink its strategy and the implementation of Universal Credit.

“I will seek to speak to the Secretary of State to make sure that the issues that arise from the three-part documentary are well and truly taken into consideration. I will also raise it in the House of Commons."

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Amber Rudd. Picture: Victoria Jones/PA Wire

Mr Hill added: “It’s certainly true that times are tough, crime is high and our people are struggling.

“We need a huge change in the way we talk about benefits.

“These people aren’t scroungers, they’re often hard working people or vulnerable people who need support.”

The MP also defended Hartlepool in wake of the latest TV documentary which has put the national spotlight on the town.

After seeing the first episode of the show, Mr Hill said: “In recent years, my constituency has appeared numerous times on national television and in the national press in an unfavourable light.

“Programmes and documentaries, though I use the term very loosely, such as Benefits Street and Wednesday’s Skint Britain are commonplace filming in Hartlepool.

“These documentaries claim to show the plight of working-class people in the modern day, but in actual fact are used to fuel the arguments that people on benefits are lazy and do not deserve help.

“Rather than showing the damage done to the lives of ordinary people struggling with a system set against them, these programmes ridicule vulnerable people and make a mockery of the people they purport to help.

“Last night’s Channel 4 programme dealt with the subject better than any to date, though still in a way that portrays people in receipt of benefits like animals in a zoo.

“I hope that people are beginning to understand the difficulty, the stigma and the climate of fear around the Universal Credit and PIP system.”

Defending the town against negative portrayals, Mr Hill said: “Hartlepool is good place to live.

“The people are on average much kinder, friendlier and down to Earth than you can find anywhere else in Britain.

“Local groups have been taking an interest in healing the damage done to our town.

“Hundreds of people donate to our food banks and volunteer in our soup kitchens to ensure that nobody in this town starves.

“None of these areas are shown in the TV clips of Hartlepool that are being aired on television.”

He continued: “There are shades of poverty porn in the show, but these are stories that need to be told.

“You look at these stories and they are horrendous, but they are not untypical of people on Universal Credit in Hartlepool.

“But it’s the way the programme portrays the stories of the lives that has a hint of poverty porn.”