SIR – The TV series Benefits Street has garnered much publicity. Some have used it to criticise the welfare system, others to demonise a certain type of person in our country. A third group has claimed it was set up to produce a particular result and that it is not a fair representation of the majority who have to depend on benefits.

I favour the latter view but I feel this programme highlights another problem which is currently prevalent.

News and information can be gathered and revealed quicker and investigative reporting shared more effectively these days.

Yet sadly, too often the ‘sensational’ and ‘sweeping generalisations’ are presented in some newspapers and TV programmes, which seek to make complicated issues look simple and straightforward.

We should be careful of hasty responses, and punitive answers are not a solution. Nowadays, no political party talks of ‘full employment’ any more, perhaps because it is no longer achievable.

We need to look in detail at all the issues and evidence surrounding the lives of people at the bottom of society, ie in Britain’s ‘underclass’, before taking time to decide what can be done.

David Hornsby, West View Avenue, Wrose