Unite slams ‘Benefits Street’

General union Unite’s unique Community branches — made up of members not in a workplace — made their presence felt last month by protesting against the Channel 4 show, Benefits Street, described by the union as “a hatchet job” on the poor.

The protestors — who include students, unemployed people and others forced to rely on benefits — were mobilised by Unite’s Community arm to protest against the show for its “misrepresentation of poverty in modern Britain”.

They included people from the area of Birmingham where the programme was filmed by Love Productions.

Unite Community coordinator Pilgrim Tucker said: “Love Productions and Channel 4 have served up yet another exploitative, heavily edited, hatchet job of a show.

Tucker said that rather than shine a spotlight on the millions of families that are really struggling, Channel 4 “sought out vulnerable desperate people and served them up for entertainment”.

The Unite campaigners called on Love Productions to meet with the community affected by the show, to better understand its concerns and to discuss how to help repair the damage the programme caused.