Churches call for greater action on poverty on home

More than one in four children in the UK live in poverty, according to the latest government statistics. The number of families living in temporary accommodation has increased by a third in the past three years. While the ecumenical charity Church Action on Poverty (CAP) welcomes the progress that the government has made in tackling poverty since 1997, it issued a statement yesterday urging it to go much further and faster if it is truly to make poverty history at home. Niall Cooper, CAP coordinator said: " Although the government has now accepted the need for action to tackle the growing debt crisis in this country, it has still failed to set any targets for tackling extortionate lending and ensuring that the poorest households have access to affordable credit." CAP points out: "One group conspicuously absent from the government's anti-poverty strategy are asylum seekers - increasing numbers of whom are ending up absolutely destitute and reliant on the goodwill of refugee communities, churches and the Red Cross simply to be fed and housed. "To achieve the goal of ending child poverty in a generation will require much greater political will and injection of resources to narrow the gap between the poorest and the rest of society." Source: CAP