Welfare Reform Bill

The Welfare Reform Bill is once again back in the media spotlight as amendments are being debated in the House of Lords.

The Church of Scotland has given its backing to one particular amendment, proposed by Baroness Lister, Lord Hope of Kirkwood and the Rt Rev John Packer, the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds.  The amendment has the support of a large number of organisations working with children, including Action for Children in Scotland, Banardo’s Scotland, One Parent Families Scotland, Citizens Advice Scotland, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Save the Children Scotland, Scottish Women’s Aid and many others.

We want to ensure that claimants wth a dependent child or children do not face sanctions if they are unable to access work or work related activity, or to sustain work, due to a lack of appropriate childcare.  Most lone parents want to have the opportunity to combine paid work with the vital job of being a parent.  We believe, however, that the Welfare Reform Bill fails to recognise that the required childcare infrastructure is lacking in many parts of the UK – particularly before school starts and after it finishes, and during school holidays – and is insufficient to meet the demands being made upon benefit claimants.  There also continues to be a serious lack of childcare settings that are properly equipped - and have staff properly prepared to deal effectively and positively with – children having disabilities, learning/communication/behaviour challenges or a wide range of additional support needs.

We hope that this amendment will be considered today and are seeking assurances from the Government that they will think again about the impact of their current proposals.

Please keep all in the Government and House of Lords in your prayers as they continue to deliberate on these important issues.

Child Poverty and the growing distance between ambition and reality

Headline news today was the publication of an Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) report Child and Working-Age Poverty from 2010 to 2010.

The IFS research says that child poverty rates are set to increase substantially, despite the Government’s child poverty strategy which sets targets for reducing child poverty.

We are members of the End Child Poverty campaign in Scotland. A spokesperson for the coalition of campaign groups, charities, faith groups and trade unions in Scotland said:

"This analysis by the IFS shows that the new Universal Credit being introduced by the UK government cannot reverse the impact of massive cuts to welfare benefits, rising inflation, stagnating wages and higher unemployment. In a rich country that already has shamefully high child poverty levels, this news is devastating. If allowed to happen, it will reverse the progress made over the past decade and set us back to the rapidly rising child poverty rates of the 1980s and 1990s."

We are calling on the UK Government to take immediate steps to reduce child poverty if it is going to stand any chance of honouring the commitments made in the Coalition Agreement.

The group is also called on the Scottish Government to do more to ensure the ambitions set out in its child poverty strategy are supported by its budget decisions.

The importance of giving children the best start in life is underlined by our report from 2009 on Growing Up in Scotland. 

Reflecting on the Poverty Truth Commission

If George Osborne wants to explore with any seriousness what would give a hint of reality to his assertion that “we are all in this together”, he could not have done better than attend the closing session of Scotland’s Poverty Truth Commission on Saturday afternoon in Glasgow City Chambers. At the beginning of the Commission, two years ago, before a gathering of four hundred witnesses, a number of people with direct experience of poverty set out the challenge that their experiences have an essential contribution to make if we are serious as a society about tackling poverty. Also present were a number of people of the kind that we think of as having real influence, from the world of politics, the media, academic life, the police, business, and the Church. The outcome was the forging of a partnership between those with the experience of poverty and those with the influence. Together over the past two years they have wrestled with the need for change, and together they have taken, by way of an example of that need, the cause of kinship carers to Parliament in search of a little more justice for some of the people whose voluntary effort already goes way beyond anything the government might conceive. A big society already exists – big hearted, and at a big cost to those involved.


There are two questions that might be asked as Scotland’s Poverty Truth Commission reached its final session. What has been achieved, and what has been begun?

So what has been achieved? Recently I was asked to speak in Germany about the Church of Scotland’s work in our poorest communities. At the end the local mayor said: ‘Very good, but you have not told us how to end poverty.’ Neither has the Poverty Truth Commission. Child poverty figures are once again on the rise, and despite claims that the cuts programme is fair, all the indications are that once again the poorest among us are already being hit the hardest. Inequality is rooted in our society in ways that are hugely resistant to change, and only action and resolve from all of us together can make that happen.

Yet the Commission has brought change which may yet prove of lasting significance. It has demonstrated that with due attention paid to process, meeting style, appropriate support and acute listening, the many and varied gifts of people who have learned about poverty the hard way can be brought to bear as part of the solution. The learning that has made this possible is now available to be built on in other settings.
It has also provided evidence of the lie that is at the heart of the rhetoric about benefit fraud. Churches across the UK managed to extract an apology from Lord Freud when the Chancellor lumped together figures for error in the system with those for fraud and made the issue appear three times its actual size. After spending most of my adult life working in and around some of our poorest communities, I have met some people who are good at playing the system, even illegally. However they are few in comparison to the people who lead frugal, disciplined lives on amounts that many of us would find it hard to envisage existing on. The Commission has given a platform to some of the yearning and aspiration that exists in people who our society has failed, and demonstrated that they do not need to be portrayed in the ways that sadly prevail without much opposition.

Saturday's closing session presented a series of challenges that we ignore at our peril.

Too much of the way we have tried to deal with poverty has treated those most directly involved as objects, rather than those with the skills and experience to shape our response. In regeneration initiatives, little of the resources invested – other than the physical building of houses – stays in the poorest communities. It is time for a change, and as the Poverty Truth Commission is all too aware, that has only just begun.

It is no sin to be dependent

The Welfare Reform Bill is one of the UK Government’s flagship policies, and its impact will affect all of us. It begins being debated in Westminster tomorrow, when it has its 2nd Reading debate in the House of Commons.

I’ve written before about my concern about the language and rhetoric that politicians have used in this debate. It is good therefore that there has been a shift in some of the thinking and words used by Ministers, such as Iain Duncan Smith’s responses to the Work and Pensions Select Committee last month when he said:

"If it’s of any use, it also helps politically to tone the rhetoric down quite a bit. We can turn the knob down on this. There is always this "fraud, fraud, fraud" and everyone wagging their finger at everyone else, bit the truth is that quite a lot of we hear about politically and constantly as fraud is often complexity error. It is very easy for us to say it is fraud, and people feel quite stigmatised by that. The truth is that quite often it has nothing to do with them; it is simply that the system itself means that they did not understand what they were meant to be doing, yet they are apparently committing a fraud. A lot of them did not know that that was the case. We hope that, politically, this will tone some of the rhetoric down and basically stop people being accused of something that, frankly, is partly because of the system and has nothing to do with them."

The Church of Scotland, with our partners in Faith in Community Scotland, have written to all MPs representing Scottish constituencies about the Bill and the debate tomorrow.


In the briefing we outline some of our beliefs about the principle of the welfare system:

Our nation comprises of people who care for one another.

It is important to remember what the welfare system is intended to achieve. It is the means by which we, as a nation, pool our resources to support the most vulnerable members of our society and ensure that everyone has access to adequate resources to live a dignified and healthy life.

Change should not be about cutting costs, but making the system work better and for more people.

The goal of welfare reform has to be to make the lives of people who need help easier and we urge the Government to seek to take steps through its planned reforms of the welfare system to seek to reduce the levels of inequality in our country – an inequality which we believe damages all parts of society.

Dependency is not a sin for which requires penance in order to spur people into laying it aside.

Dependency is a fact of life, for us all; we depend on each other, rich and poor, disabled or able‐bodied. This is what makes us human. Perpetuating the myth that only those in receipt of benefits are dependent – and using that as a basis for policy – is divisive and undermines the social cohesion which the Government seeks to foster.

The goal of welfare reform must not be to reduce the cost of the welfare system or to reduce dependency but to enable all members of society to contribute as they are most able.

The Welfare Reform Bill

Iain Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, has recently introduced the Welfare Reform Bill.

It is being spun as the biggest reform of the welfare state for 60 years since the days of the Beveridge Report.

The Church and Society Council, together with our partners in the Priority Areas Committee, Faith in Community Scotland and other organisations are preparing for some serious engagement with the Bill as it makes its way through the Houses of Parliament.

We have already responded to the Green Paper published last year.

We are cautious about the Bill. Some of the principles are to be welcomed, but it is the detail of how things might work out which is causing some to worry.

Last week Iain Duncan Smith promised that “no one will be worse off” under the new system. We intend to hold him to this promise.

We are also keen to make sure that the Government’s use of language when talking about those who receive benefit entitlements remains fair and not inflammatory. We have had experience of this in the past, and have had an apology out of the Government.

But overall we are keen to work constructively with anyone whose intention is to make life easier for the poorest people. I am keen to continue a dialogue with the Department for Work and Pensions to see how their plans will be rolled out in Scotland.

The Apology of the Minister for Welfare Reform

The Minister for Welfare Reform, Lord Freud, has recognised to Church representatives throughout the UK that “the vast majority of benefit recipients are genuinely entitled to the financial support they receive”. Lord Freud wrote to Rev. Martyn Atkins, General Secretary of the Methodist Church and other Church representatives across the UK in response to our complaints against grossly inaccurate governmental accounts of the extent of welfare fraud.


The Coalition Government brandished the figure of £5.2 billion as the extent of welfare fraud. From August to November, there was a deluge of negative publicity against welfare recipients, detailing examples of abuse of the benefits system. However, in his letter, Lord Freud, has acknowledged that the £5.2 billion figure was in fact the joint accounting of “fraud and error” and that “this was entirely inadvertent and not in any way intended to mislead. "

It is reassuring that there is recognition that the figures were incorrect; however, public perception about the integrity of people living on benefits has probably been distorted. This is in spite of the fact that Lord Freud recognises that “It is a small minority who choose to abuse the system support by deliberately setting out to defraud it”.

An apology was issued to Church representatives; however who has apologised to the thousands whose integrity was questioned? Lord Freud states he has “asked his officials to take corrective action”. Has anyone heard public announcements correcting and explaining the figures? Have governmental websites been modified?

It is gracious indeed to recognise mistakes, it is however wiser to make amends.

Welfare Reform should mean Support with Dignity

I truly welcome the fact that the Kirk has been invited to respond to the consultation on 21st Century Welfare issued by the Coalition Government. With a church in every community, the Kirk has been at the centre of community involvement, getting the views of people living in poverty throughout Scotland. Through the work of Scotland’s Poverty Truth Commission, we have had direct access to hear and learn from those that are struggling with poverty. This has informed our views on the need to get the involvement of those struggling with the issues on a daily basis, on any kind of measures directed towards helping them out of poverty. ‘Nothing about Us without Us is for Us.’

The Coalition Government proposes to simplify the benefits system. Aye to that. It also proposes to encourage people to move from the benefits system into paid employment. The welfare system is in place to help those in need. It is a resource that we all contribute into in order to provide help and support to the most vulnerable amongst us. Much has been said about the culture of dependence and the lifestyle choices of welfare recipients. In our experience, nearly all people that are able to work, want to and do so if work is available. There are many ways to contribute into society apart from paid employment. No one can dispute the valuable contribution done by thousands of people caring for children, or tending for a disabled relative; these unpaid contributions, amount to significant savings to the public purse.

Support with dignity is the key.