Tag Archives: poverty
Amid growing poverty, councils have failed to save fund for those in need
From April 2015, a £180m a year hardship fund will be abolished. Councils have simply not made a strong enough argument for it
Iain Duncan Smith‘s axe has struck again. This time its local authority welfare assistance schemes on the block. But we’re not talking reform or even cuts. The scheme had already been significantly cut last year. From April 2015 a £180m a year hardship fund will be abolished completely. That’s right. Scrapped. A vital safety net will no longer be there.
For years I’ve seen the value of crisis loans, which used to operate under the social fund until the government devolved funding last year, allowing councils to set up their own discretionary crisis funds. They’re a critical part of the welfare system to help people in desperate need.
Please remember mothers and carers struggling against poverty on this day
Bishop issues Mothering Sunday message
5:24pm Friday 8th March 2013 in News
THE Bishop of Dudley, the Rt Revd David Walker, is asking people to remember mothers who are struggling to make ends meet this year – 100 years after the campaign to re-establish Mothering Sunday was launched.
Rt Rev Walker said: “I’m not feeling very sentimental about motherhood this year, at a time when more and more mothers are needing to turn to church run Food Banks to see their children are adequately fed.
Family unpaid carers have to fight for everything
Truth and lies about poverty, benefits and welfare
Abstract
A new churches’ report (published by by the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church, through their Joint Public Issues Team) shows how evidence and statistics have been misused, misrepresented and manipulated to create untruths that stigmatise poor people, welfare recipients and those in receipt of benefits. Ekklesia has not been involved in the commissioning or production of this report, but as a thinktank working on welfare issues and advocating a major shift of public policy towards the needs, concerns and skills of marginalised people in society, we are pleased to endorse and publicise it.
