Universal Credit - A Case Study in Government Failure

This is deeply sobering six minute video from BBC Newsnight as we visit a food bank in the west end of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Is the roll-out of universal credit damaging work incentives for some people? Seasonal and short term contractual work will take people in and out of the benefits system but most people do not have any savings to get them through the six weeks before universal benefit payments start to come through.

This is a story of deep and persistent relative poverty and people clinging on in a fissured labour market that frequently comes into conflict with a flawed monolithic welfare system.