Benefits Britain: Life on the Dole

Documentary examining the lives of people dependent on state welfare in the Norfolk seaside town of Great Yarmouth, where the majority of work is seasonal. Leona and Lee worry about their three-month-old daughter's future when their payments are cut because they failed to fill in the correct forms, while Jordan McDonald has his benefits halved after the job centre discovers he has not attended a government work programme.

This edition of the programme focuses on large families who depend on the benefits system, including 64-year-old Peter Rolfe, whose children - by 15 different women - range in ages from three to 43, of which he is the sole carer for six. He has been fighting his council in the Isle of Wight for a much bigger house and is also at loggerheads with the benefits office for capping his weekly payment. West Midlands mother-of-eight Marie Buchanan has recently split from her partner and is looking for a larger home, while Ipswich couple the Fisks have been in dispute with their neighbours, who objected to two houses being knocked into one to accommodate them and their 13 children.

The documentary examining the lives of unemployed people visits South Yorkshire, which has some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the UK and where benefits caps, sanctions and the bedroom tax are hitting those at the poorer end of society. Larry is a 60-year-old ex-steelworker and desperate for work, but says no one wants to hire him as he is considered too old, while father-of-three Kevin is long-term unemployed and back living with his parents in the bedroom he occupied as a teenager.