Caritas Social Action Network condemns benefit cuts

The social action arm of the Catholic Church in England and Wales and other Catholic organisations have condemned the Chancellor’s decision to increase benefit payments below the rate of inflation as “unwise and unjust”. The announcment comes just a week after Archbishop Vincent Nichols warned a gathering of MPs and Peers that the welfare system should “ensure a safety net is always in place to protect essentials such as food and shelter for those who fall on hard times”.

Today Helen O’Brien, Chief Executive of CSAN (Caritas Social Action Network), said that the measures outlined in the Autumn Statement would undermine that safety net: “The social security system absolutely must provide individuals and families with enough to meet the fundamental costs of daily life. Increasing benefit payments at a rate so far below rent, food and utility prices is both unwise and unjust. It risks leaving people without enough for their essential needs, jeopardising their health and wellbeing, whilst generating long-term costs that our communities will have to face further down the line.”

Cathy Corcoran, Chief Executive of the Cardinal Hume Centre in Westminster added: “Many significant welfare restrictions are already set to come into force early in the new year. Breaking the link between inflation and benefits before the effects of these changes have even been assessed, is a potentially disastrous move that could cause unsustainable hardship for many people who are already struggling to get by.”

Kevin Flanagan, Director of St. Antony’s Centre for Church and Industry in Manchester said: “We are already seeing increasing levels family poverty and homelessness; any further real-term reduction of benefits will only worsen this situation.”

Rosemary Keenan, director of the Catholic Children's Society, Westminster, commented: "The autumn statement seeks to perpetuate the narrative that those in poverty are people who do not or will not work! It is sad to see this narrative being used as an excuse to justify in the mind of the public what in effect are more cuts for those who can least afford them: families in poverty and those who through illness and disability cannot work."

For more information see: www.csan.org.uk

Archbishop Nichols addressed the 2012 CSAN Parliamentary Reception on 28 November; full text of his speech is available at www.csan.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/FINAL-Archbishop-Nichols-address-to-CSAN-parliamentary-reception.pdf