The film stars Dave Johns as Daniel Blake, a middle-aged man who is denied Employment and Support Allowance despite being declared unfit to work by his doctor.

Daniel helps the family by repairing objects, teaching them how to heat rooms without electricity, and crafting wooden toys for the children.

The speech describes his feelings about how the welfare system failed him, and states, "I am not a blip on a computer screen or a national insurance number, I am a man."

After a delay, O'Brien said she was told by Channel 4 that funding was not available as "we're already covering the area because we're doing Benefits Street",[9] a programme that many saw as demonising people on state welfare.

[11] The Trinity Mirror also provided 10,000 free tickets to see the movie as announced in one of their newspapers[12] and used Daniel Blake as the masthead for its papers.

The House of Commons and other major buildings in London had projections of Daniel Blake's end speech placed onto the outside walls as part of its "Guerrilla Marketing Campaign".

[13] Ken Loach retweeted various tweets promoting the film and even started a hashtag #WeAreAllDanielBlake[14] which can mostly be found on the official I, Daniel Blake Twitter page.

The site's consensus reads: "I, Daniel Blake marks yet another well-told chapter in director Ken Loach's powerfully populist filmography.

The stand-up comedian Tom Mayhew had previously been on benefits for over three years in "austerity Britain" and was inspired to write the show after watching the film.

[26] On the 27 October 2016 episode of the BBC topical debate programme Question Time, which had Loach as a panellist, the Conservative Party's then-Business Secretary Greg Clark described the film as "fictional" and said, "It's a difficult job administering a benefits system.