Senior Faith leaders from across the country are joining forces today (Sunday 23 March 2025) in an urgent call for the government to be ‘bold and ambitious’ in its forthcoming Child Poverty Strategy. The call comes in an open letter to the co-chairs of the Ministerial Child Poverty Taskforce, …
Poverty and Inequality
Repeatedly taking the easy choice on welfare
JPIT's Paul Morrison responds to potential disability benefit cuts. In the November 2024 budget the Chancellor decided to keep the last government’s £3bn of disability benefit cuts which were pencilled in for the next three years. This was called a “difficult decision”. Over the past week, the …
Response to international development budget cut
Baptist, Methodist, Church of Scotland and United Reformed Church leaders have responded to the Prime Minister’s announcement concerning further cuts to the international development budget: We deeply lament the government’s stated intention to make further cuts to the UK’s international …
Looking at the Government Budget
Reflecting on the Budget The Let’s End Poverty campaign, which many churches are supporting, had called for a Budget that prioritised the poorest. This was not it. Everyone in the UK, including the least well off, will benefit from the increased spending on public services, which will certainly …
Challenge Poverty Week
Challenging Poverty The story of the past decade has been of steadily increasing poverty alongside rapid deepening of poverty. As we enter Challenge Poverty Week it is important to understand what we mean by poverty and destitution, what its consequences are and why it can …
Dear prospective Prime Ministers: the important issue is poverty not “welfare”
A question was asked in the prime ministerial debate about “welfare”. Much of what was said in response by both candidates was either a gross oversimplification or simply incorrect. It is telling that the only person who did not fall into this trap was the second questioner on the subject, who …
Dignity For All: Demanding Action to End Poverty this General Election
As Jesus approached the temple in Jerusalem, he had just spent time with Zacchaeus, whose life had been so reordered from his exchange with Jesus that he repaid the money he had cheated through taxation on the poor. In the Gospel of Luke’s ordering of events, it should not be lost on the reader the …
Is Britain suffering from “sick note culture” or from unhelpful rhetoric and tired old policy?
The Prime Minister’s speech and press release on disability benefits last week was depressingly familiar. The formula of “moral mission”, “unsustainable cost”, “toughen-up testing” followed by a bit of “they are gaming the system” has been used repeatedly over the past decade – a decade in which the …
Is it “mental health culture” or hunger that has gone too far?
“Mental health culture has gone too far, says Mel Stride” said a headline in the Daily Telegraph two weeks ago. In the article below it the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions outlined his view that a significant factor in the post-pandemic increase in people not at work due to mental ill …
Sharpest increase in UK poverty for 30 years
The new government statistics on UK poverty make for horrendous reading. The median UK household got poorer by 1.5% after housing costs. However, behind that average hides a story of those with the most getting more, and those with the least having even less. This is a familiar pattern, however …