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A Life Without Work

Episode #1.2 (Season 1, Episode 2)
TV Episode | Documentary
A hundred years on from a ground-breaking investigation into unemployment, Richard Bilton compares the lives of the jobless in 1910 with their modern-day counterparts. A century ago single mums lived on the brink of starvation - now our ...See moreA hundred years on from a ground-breaking investigation into unemployment, Richard Bilton compares the lives of the jobless in 1910 with their modern-day counterparts. A century ago single mums lived on the brink of starvation - now our costly benefits system means that children do not go hungry. But has the welfare state created new problems? And as the government embarks on the biggest shake-up of benefits for a generation, what lessons can we learn from research into unemployment carried out a hundred years ago? In 1910, philanthropist and chocolate tycoon Seebohm Rowntree wrote a radical book about unemployment, exposing for the first time the terrible conditions faced by Britain's jobless. In the second of two programmes looking at a century of unemployment, Richard Bilton uncovers startling parallels between then and now - including a man living in a tent and reliant on casual labour - as well as the incredible advances that 100 years of reform have brought us. But he discovers that for some, the solutions to ending a life without work remain as out of reach as they did a century ago. Written by BBC See less
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Producer
Barbara Arvanitidis (producer)
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Status
Edit Released
Updated Oct 29, 2010
Release date
Oct 29, 2010 (United Kingdom)

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1 cast member
Name Known for
Alex Hutchinson primary photo
Alex Hutchinson
Self - Historian Self - Historian   See fewer
BBC Look North: Yorkshire (1968)
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