'Benefits Street' continues to cause further debate as one online petition calls for its cancellation, while others feel no sympathy towards those involved.

Benefits StreetChannel 4's Benefits Street has caused quite the stir

Channel 4 and Ofcom were met with hundreds of complaints after the show, which documented the lives of various residents of James Turner Street in Birmingham who were receiving state hand-outs. It featured people drinking and smoking excessively, with two people even being filmed during their shoplifting exploits. Now a petition on Change.org has called for the following four shows to be axed insisting the show 'has portrayed people on benefits as scroungers and it's wrong', and suggesting that Channel 4 should make a donation to a relevant charity for 'the harm caused'.

While Labour MP Dame Anne Begg agreed on Radio 4 that there was a 'misrepresentation' of people on benefits with it focusing on 'a petty criminal' rather than living off benefits, Channel 4 has defended the program with representative Ralph Lee telling BBC2's Newsnight, 'They were very clear and transparent with everyone on the street about what the nature of the programme was, why they were there and what the nature of the end product was.' 

Meanwhile, controversial social commentator Katie Hopkins has taken aim at the Street's residents, declaring that the show showed 'Benefits Britain at its worst'. 'I can't have been the only person sat at home wondering why my taxes were paying for people to slob out in front of bigger TVs than I'll ever own', she said in a short video for the BBC.