A coalition of 100 charities has slammed Channel 4 for an “unbalanced” portrayal of people receiving benefits in the programme Benefits Street.

The condemnation is ascribed to the Who Benefits Campaign, a movement launched by Children’s Society, Crisis, Gingerbread and Mind last October, to “give a voice to the millions of us who have been supported by benefits”. So far 100 organisations have joined the campaign. 

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, the chief executives of the Children’s Society, Crisis, Gingerbread and Mind accused the programme-makers of Benefits Street of “reinforcing harmful sterotypes where the most extreme example is presented as the norm” .

They say that as a public service broadcaster Channel 4 should “review how this damaging and grossly unbalanced programme came to be shown”.

The coalition has also written to Channel 4’s head of factual asking for a meeting and started a petition calling on the broadcaster to present a more balanced view. So far almost 2,000 people have signed the petition.

Responding to the criticism Nick Mirsky, head of documentaries at Channel 4, said: “Benefits Street is a five-part observational documentary series.  It was made over the course of 12 months (though the project has taken two years to bring to air). It was filmed in one of the areas of Britain with the most sustained and entrenched unemployment.”

He added: “These films are an honest reflection of what happened over a year of filming, made by a documentary team with a track record for the highest-quality programme-making.  Some of the material is uncomfortable to watch, and some of it is inspiring and uplifting. What I dispute is that the people represented in the series are ‘harmful stereotypes’.”