Benefits Street
More than 28,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Channel 4 to drop its TV show Benefits Street. The show started last week and follows the lives of people claiming benefits on James Turner Street in the Winson Green area of Birmingham.
Some of the stars of the show say they were told it would be about community spirit and they say the show paints a rather different picture, making residents out to be anti-social benefit scroungers, irresponsible parents, drug-takers and foul-mouthed wasters.
A Channel 4 spokesman said: "It is a sympathetic, humane and objective portrayal of how people are coping with continuing austerity and cuts in benefits. We intend to continue broadcasting the series."
In this interview former Birmingham bus driver Arshad Mahmood, who started the online petition, told Midlands Masala's Arshia Riaz why he thought the show painted a damaging picture for the majority who were claiming benefits for genuine reasons.
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