If you were relying on welfare to survive, what would you use it for? Rent? Food Medicine? Bills? In 2020, over three million Australians were recorded as living below the poverty line. In the new three-part documentary series, Could You Survive on the Breadline?, three prominent Australians are about to discover what life is like for millions of people living on the welfare system.
Premiering 8:30pm on Wednesday 17 November, author and TV personality Julie Goodwin, journalist Caleb Bond, and NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong, will go on separate journeys into three different communities to gain insights into the poverty and disadvantage experienced by so many in Australia. For all three, it will be a confronting and emotional experience.
Over three episodes, Julie, Caleb, and Jenny will hand over their credit cards and forgo access to life as they know it, challenging their strong pre-existing views to see if they can survive alone on welfare, support a family, and get by with a low-wage job.
Meeting and living with Australians in communities in the inner-city, outer suburbs, and regional Australia, they discover what it’s like to navigate life on various forms of welfare, including in some cases going without necessities like proper heating, secure and safe accommodation, adequate health care and a decent diet. They learn about the challenges first-hand from a single mother raising four children, a woman caring for her ill husband, a young parent living in a rodent-infested house, and a man who lost his job during Covid-19, among many others.
SBS head of documentaries Joseph Maxwell said: “Could You Survive on the Breadline? provides a raw and honest reflection of what life is like for Australians who rely on the welfare system to survive. It is SBS’s role to invite challenging but vital discussions around problems that affect Australians, and poverty and low-income living are complex issues that often come with a lot of misconception.”
Could You Survive on the Breadline? will also be available to stream on SBS On Demand with subtitles in five languages: Simplified Chinese, Arabic, Vietnamese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean.
Could You Survive on the Breadline? is a Lune Media production for SBS. Principal production investment from Screen Australia. Developed and financed with support from Screen NSW.
Could You Survive on the Breadline? airs Wednesdays from 17 November at 8:30pm on SBS and SBS On Demand. The three-part series continues weekly.