Born losers.

A portrait of the Walshes; a poor family with nine children under ten (a further one died in an accident as a baby). They are dependent on the Welfare State. The father is recently unemployed and fields questions about why the State has to subsidise him and his family (he seems confused regarding the pointed direction of the questions). The parents reflect on how they have found themselves in this situation, having themselves been poor as children. Evidence is provided of the family's slum living conditions. Four of the boys share a bed. They are not in council accommodation. Sarah, one of the girls, has serious scaring from burns caused by playing with matches (the baby who died was due to burns in another accident). The family consume a typical meal; mashed potato, beans and a sausage. The family yearn for more food and better clothes, although seem largely unmaterialistic. One of the boys gets some second hand shoes from a charity shop. The father bemoans the fact that they have too many children; his wife has never used birth control nor considered using it. They are warned by the interviewer that they could have ten more! Walsh hopes his children have smaller families. Ironically, the family would be better off financially without their father, Bill who is claiming unemployment benefit.