Universal Credit has been slammed as "systematic genocide" by viewers of the second episode of BBC Two's Inside the Welfare State documentary, with claimants close to starving on the controversial benefit.
Thursday's installment of the three-part series, saw 61-year-old claimant Sue struggling to survive on egg and baked beans after being made redundant and told her benefits will be reduced if she doesn't get 35 hours work a week.
A viewer with the Twitter handle @PurpleDon1973 said: "That poor woman. Susan, made redundant, 61 years old. 61 and expected to take on two or three jobs. Landed a job for 10 hours a week and jobcentre still on her back. 61 years old. Ffs."
While another described Universal Credit as "systematic genocide".
This week's episode centred around the Toxteth Jobcentre in Merseyside, where 'work coaches' are thinly-stretched following the closure of two other centres and their subsequent merger.
Sue has been unemployed before but after losing her last job as a nursery school cleaner, she has found the new UC system makes her anxious.
“Now it’s all been put into one [system of benefit payments], you just don’t know where you are at," she said. "It’s so hard. There are so many things you’ve got to do - it’s just constant pressure.”
Viewers saw her initially take a 10-hour a week toilet cleaning job at a pub in Liverpool, which paid the national minimum wage rate of £8.20 an hour but she describes the work as "horrible".
“There are some dirty people out there. I thought it was men at first, but women are just as bad.”
However, she persisted and found another two jobs, taking her up to 35 hours a week, meaning she no longer has to claim.
But viewers were appalled at the working conditions Sue was subjected to at her advanced age and the often heartless job centre staff.
One said she looked "bloody exhausted" juggling multiple jobs before describing their own experiences cutting her own hair and eating egg on toast for dinner, "yet they [job centre staff] still harass me from my sick bed".
Graham Robson tweeted watching the episode "reminded me how thankful I am that it's nearly 5 years since I was last inside a jobcentre".
"Don't think I'll ever forget how crap the rigid, inhumane and completely ineffective system used to make me feel."
While Ant C said there are times he's needed to claim Universal Credit "but was made to feel so ashamed I quickly withdrew my application".
He added that prior to claiming he had asked job centre staff if he could use their computers for a job search but was refused.
"No compassion whatsoever!" he said.
Fellow claimant Zach was also included as a case study alongside Sue last night, describing how it feels like he's "banging his head against a brick wall" as he attempts to navigate the world of Universal Credit.
Zach, who previously worked on building sites and warehouses, struggles to find permanent work despite applying with 15-20 companies online and putting CVs in every shop or business he walks past.
He tells the cameras: "You have to keep smiling mate, I'm not going to let those b***ards get me down."
The 47-year-old cares for his mum full time but is still forced to make a weekly trip to the job centre.
The stretched Jobcentre is one of the busiest in the country following the merger in an area where one in 20 people are unemployed.
The episode sees Zach come in for an appointment that lasts just seven minutes to prove his commitment and that he has been looking for work to get his entitlement of £317 a month.
"It's supposed to be making life easier for people. Who's it making life easier for? Not us," he says.
He compares the lack of any jobs available at the centre to going into a chip shop and ordering food to find they haven't got any.
"It was what it was today," he explained. "It was that two minute thing of pulling me in and verbally confirming everything what I have already digitally confirmed online."
"They have the power, all the power.
"[It makes you feel] like I have got to jump to their tune."
Later in the show, as Zach walks the streets handing in CVs to every shop and business he passes - often only to be told they can't accept CVs in person - he tells the cameras he is determined to "stay positive".
His persistence, however, pays off, and Zach is delighted to be then given a work trial at a construction company and is shown smiling and upbeat as he gets up for work at 5.30am to catch the bus.
While third case study Laryssa was a week away from giving birth when filming took place but was still being forced to prove she lives in the UK despite having lived in Liverpool since she was a child, after moving from the Czech Republic.
Helping her with her claim is Jules, who has worked in Jobcentres for 28 years and has seen the 'residency test' - which decides whether people born outside the UK are entitled to benefits - become much stricter since the roll-out of Universal Credit overhauled the welfare system starting in 2013.
At one point, in discomfort due to her imminent birth date, Laryssa had been asked to find her dad's payslips for the last two years but is unable to do so.
Finally, the Job Centre staff find a way around the system - they get her dad's permanent residency approved, meaning his daughter's claim can go through.
"It was very tough on her," says Jules. "We're not equipped to deal with that."
Some viewers were annoyed at the upbeat solutions to the case studies, suggesting the overall programme is actually more about government "propaganda" than showing the brutal realities at their worst.
JJ Wyatt said: "This show smacks of propaganda, the #UniversalCredit system is deliberately designed to punish and coerce."
