Like me, many of you will have watched the film I, Daniel Blake when it was shown on TV recently.

Although upsetting to watch at times, it gave an accurate portrayal of the cruel and inhumane regime being applied in the social security system by this Tory government.

As illustrated in the film, we are all just one bad experience away from needing support from the welfare state.

The character in the film had worked all his life but, due to having a heart attack, became unfit for work. Despite his GP giving the opinion he should not work, the Tory benefits regime did not accept this and he was subjected to humiliating sanctions.

The Tories are now using the Universal Credit system to ratchet up the pain, with the number of sanctions imposed being substantially higher than under the legacy benefits.

This is at a time when the Tories are getting away with spinning that they are halting and fixing Universal Credit when they are instead still rolling it out.

They even used the Brexit fiasco to sneak out a hardening of the regime. For the first time, they have pensioners in their sights. From May, mixed-aged couples, where one has reached pension age and the other is below pension age, will not be able to claim pension credit.

This will see a system that will deny pensioners their entitlement because their partner happens to be younger. This is an outrage that will disproportionately hit our poorest pensioners.

The charity Age UK has warned that the change could potentially see mixed-age couples losing around £7,000 a year. What planet is this Tory government living on?!

They are creating a system that will see some pensioners £140 a week worse off than those who claim before the change coming in and one that means some couples would be financially better off being single.

This makes a mockery of the principle of rewarding those who worked all their life and paid into the system.

I am sure that, like me, you believe our pensioners should be rewarded for the contribution they have made and that they are entitled to a dignified retirement.

It’s no wonder they tried to hide this announcement among the Brexit mess. They should hang their heads in shame.