A BBC television programme that spoke of a ‘benefits dependency culture’, breached the corporation's own rules on impartiality and accuracy.

The BBC Trust was largely supportive of The Future of the Welfare State, presented by John Humphrys and broadcast on BBC 2 in October 2011.

However it found that viewers were  ‘left unable to reach an informed opinion’ because of a lack of statistical information, and had misleading statements about benefits spending. The programme therefore breached the BBC’s guidelines on accuracy and impartiality.

The programme emphasised the view that a 'benefits dependency' culture has grown up, with people happy to remain out of work and living off benefits. In an accompanying article in the Daily Mail Humphrys, a presenter on the Today programme, wrote, ‘'Beveridge tried to slay the fifth evil giant and, in the process, helped to create a different sort of monster in its place: the age of entitlement'.

The complaint was made by the Child Poverty Action Group. Its chief executive Alison Garnham said, 'This programme, like too many media stories, failed the public by swallowing wholesale the evidence-free myth of a "dependency culture" in which unemployment and rising benefit spending is the fault of the unemployed.’

The Joint Public Issues Team of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Methodist and United Reformed Church has attempted to highlight the myths surrounding poverty in the UK through its Truth and Lies report and subsequent campaigning on the issue.

It has called on both the Government and media to stop misusing statistics and misrepresenting the most vulnerable.