Benefits Street (2014)

Genre

documentary film, documentary television program

Country

United Kingdom

Length

2 seasons, 10 episodes

Rating

6.3 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary series follows people in UK neighborhoods who claim welfare benefits. It shows their daily lives and includes scenes of illegal activity. The series sparked debate over how it portrayed poverty.

observationalrawconfrontationalcontroversialunpolishedgrittyeverydayblunt

What happens

Benefits Street is a British documentary series broadcast on Channel 4. It followed the lives of benefit claimants and showed them committing crimes, including a demonstration of how to shoplift, and portrayed a situation in which people are dependent on benefits and voluntarily refuse to seek employment. The first season began airing on 6 January 2014 and ran for five episodes, during which it documented the lives of several people living on James Turner Street in the Winson Green area of Birmingham, where the media reports that 90% of residents claim benefits. The second series began airing on 11 May 2015 and ran for four episodes, with this season focusing on the residents of Kingston Road in Stockton-on-Tees. The show was highly controversial; Channel 4, the police, and the media regulator Ofcom received hundreds of complaints, and there were death threats made against the residents of the street on Twitter. Channel 4 was accused of making poverty porn, and many of those taking part claimed that they were misled by the producers. Ofcom launched an investigation into whether the programme had breached the broadcasting regulations, but ultimately concluded its rules had not been broken. The producers defended the series, arguing that the reaction to it demonstrated the importance of making such a documentary. The series was mentioned in the House of Commons and prompted some political debate on the topic of benefits. A number of programmes were commissioned by other channels covering the same topic, while Channel 4 commissioned a follow-up series provisionally titled Immigration Street that would follow the lives of immigrants in the UK. Benefits Street gave Channel 4 their highest viewing figures for any show since 2012. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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