The whole Benefits system is fraught with obstacles and red tape (whether deliberately or due to bad organisation I'm not in a position to know.)

I well remember helping newly-released prisoners wade through it all. Their Probation Officers weren't terribly bothered. As a Volunteer/Prison Visitor, I was happy to go with them after release here and there to try and sort out the officialdom. Some needed support with staying off drugs, others were really not well enough to work (I had one lad with Hepatitis B whose liver was in a poor state and his face was very jaundiced. The hospital was miles away for his treatment and he had no money for the fare) The delays were frightening. How they were expected to exist on thin air for 'a few weeks' and how to find accommodation etc was quite beyond them.
It was never a surprise that they ended up getting 'employed' as drug runners for the big dealers, dossing on the floor of appalling slums and going back into jail after a short while.

I also donate to our local food bank, which has no end of desperate people being referred for basic food items in a couple of carrier bags. But this is only for about 3 days, so as not to render them too dependent. To think in these days that folk have no food at all in their cupboards is so very sad.

I realise that Benefits staff have a rotten time of it, but the attitudes I came across were infuriating. They were overtly disdainful and obviously despised their clients. I would never have accepted being spoken to like that. Disgraceful.