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Episode Guides
About the Show
Benefits claimants volunteer to live by the rules of the first year of the welfare state, to examine how our safety net should work
Series 1 Summary
In this bold piece of living history, current benefits claimants volunteer to live for a week by the rules of 1949 to explore how our welfare safety net should work
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Episode 1
This first episode looks at how the state should support disabled, long-term sick and elderly people
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Episode 2
The second episode follows three claimants as they give up their 2013 entitlement to council housing and agree to be reassessed and rehoused according to 1949 rules
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Episode 3
Three unemployed claimants volunteer to live under the benefits rules of 1949. Anyone without work without good reason was regarded as workshy and got short shrift on the street or at the Dole Office.
