Senior leaders from churches and charities have called on politicians to take urgent action on rising poverty in the UK and around the world. In a joint statement released today (Friday, January 5), senior Christian leaders - including the General Secretary of Churches Together in England, …
poverty
Poverty in the UK
UK poverty levels in violation of international law Last month, the United Nations poverty envoy, Olivier De Schutter, stated that the UK is in violation of international law due to the poverty levels currently being experienced. This came five years after his predecessor accused the government …
Act on Poverty
We serve a God of justice - this resource can help us all to use our voices and our votes to help make tackling poverty a priority. Revd Gill Newton, President of the Methodist Conference 2023-2024 A resource for small groups, introduced in 2024 and now updated for 2025 Poverty hurts. It …
Interest rate rises: is there another way?
On 22nd June, the Today programme contained an interview with Karen Morgan, an economist who advises the Chancellor and is employed by the financial institution JP Morgan. She gave an admirably honest account of the orthodox view of tackling inflation. In the summary clip here, she states that the …
Sanctions don’t work – but they are increasing anyway
Last month, the Department for Work and Pensions released its internal review into the effectiveness of benefit sanctions[1]. To summarise the report – sanctions are not effective. Not only are they ineffective – they are harmful. Previous research shows that removing benefits increases hardship, …
Just Economics
A FREE SIX-SESSION COURSE for small groups. What should the goal of the economy be? Why isn’t our current system enabling people to flourish, especially as the cost of living crisis bites? Could a change in approach help us solve the climate crisis? What does our Christian faith have to say about …
Time to Ban the Bailiffs
Joe Cox from our friends at Debt Justice (formerly the Jubilee Debt Campaign) introduces their new campaign to make council tax collection more humane and more effective – by ending council’s use of bailiffs. In its latest annual release the UK government found that £4.4 billion of council tax …
The Cost of Living Crisis
In 2022, the cost of living is of major concern for many. Rising prices in food, fuel and transport are forcing people to make hard choices over how they spend their money. The least well-off are the worst affected, with those choices being narrowed to heating or eating, or skipping meals to feed …
The Spring Statement number you need to know: 600,000 more people pulled into poverty
The most important number from the entire spring statement was not from the Chancellor but from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. They estimated that over the next year, 600,000 people will be pulled into poverty [1]. The 14.6 million people already experiencing poverty will of course be pulled …
Universal Credit: Why do we think more threats and less choice helps the unemployed?
The Government has announced a new jobs “mission”. The headline policy in this mission is to say to people who lose their job that after four weeks they will also lose their choice about what jobs they should apply for. If they insist on having a choice in how they earn a living, they will be …