As the stage play of I, Daniel Blake starts its tour, here’s who you should really be angry about

When I, Daniel Blake came out, it created a political squall. I would expect it pleased those involved, given that the intention of the film was to draw attention to the hellish reality benefits claimants can find themselves trying to navigate.

Ken Loach’s Palme D’Or winning picture – currently available on Disney+ – did exactly that. It is back in the news today thanks to the stage adaptation created by its star Dave Johns. The cost of living crisis that is drowning too many Britons makes it very timely, and it has been updated to reflect that.

The film, a commercial success despite its tough subject matter, depicts the struggles of Blake, a 59-year-old joiner who finds himself ensnared in the benefits system after a heart attack leaves him too sick to work. He forms an unlikely friendship with Katie Morgan (Hayley Squires), a single mother who, having been relocated to the northeast as a result of Britain’s housing crisis, finds herself sanctioned at a JobCentre Plus. The two attempt to prop each other up amid their deepening crises.

Much of the controversy generated by the film centred on its depiction of JobCentre Plus staff as callous and uncaring to an extreme degree. Politicians like Iain Duncan-Smith were bound to push back, given the unflattering light Blake cast on their policies. But I’ve talked to former and serving civil servants about the film, and the system, and they’ve expressed unhappiness too.

Their contention was that most staff aren’t at all like the bureaucratic brutes it showcases. They say that they too find themselves trapped by a cruel system. One, who emailed me, politely took exception to some of the criticisms I’ve made in prior columns, saying I should turn my fire on the politicians.

Do they have a point? To some extent, maybe they do. The callousness expressed by some of the staff the film depicts is extreme. It is a work of fiction intended to show the rot at the heart of the system, and this aspect may have been exaggerated for dramatic purposes.

But there is nonetheless a lot of truth in Daniel’s story. Countless people find themselves in catch-22s like those he and Katie face; cruel and unavoidable circumstances that make victims of them.

The Kafkaesque nightmare the film depicts is, I am afraid, very real. A couple of years ago I visited a local food bank (at one point in the flick, Katie resorts to one in desperation). Their numbers have been growing but they are struggling to cope with demand.

The visit was for the purpose of writing a feature for The Independent, and I sat down and talked to some of the people there. I felt the hair on my neck standing up during my re-watch of the film because it was telling their stories with remarkable accuracy. Their dilemmas, and their impossible situations were no different to those of Daniel and Katie.

And yet that isn’t how claimants are often characterised by politicians and the media. The world is separated into the strivers and the scroungers. The former are seen as worthy of help, including tax cuts. The latter instead receive a boot to the behind.

It is a cruel cynicism that divides people like this. It is noteworthy that Loach deliberately cast people who, if their lives took another turn, could have landed in the same boat.

What makes that happen? The loss of a job. The sudden emergence of a health condition. A move to an unfamiliar place. The collapse of a marriage or long-term relationship.

One of my earliest memories is of my mother fiercely arguing with the local council as she tried to secure a place in social housing for us following her separation from my late father. She won, through persistence, dogged determination and a refusal to take no for an answer. But what if she hadn’t? This is a question I sometimes ask myself.

That system is becoming harder and harder to navigate. While the people working within it are not at all like movie villains, the pressures they are put under afford them the opportunity to create many real-life Daniels.

I, Daniel Blake may be fiction; but that, I am afraid, is a fact.