26 October 2010
Chancellor got his numbers wrong in Spending Review, say Churches
Churches have voiced concern over Chancellor George Osborne's
inaccurate use of welfare fraud statistics in his Spending Review
speech.
The Methodist Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the
United Reformed Church have criticised the Chancellor for claiming
that welfare fraud is responsible for cheating tax payers out of £5
billion a year.
A Department of Work and Pensions report published last week
stated that welfare fraud accounts for £1 billion of money lost,
with tax credit fraud accounting for an additional £0.6 billion,
leading to £1.6 billion lost in total. Church leaders said the
exaggerated £5 billion figure depicts the poorest and most
vulnerable in society as thieves.
"Exaggerating benefit fraud points the finger of blame at the
poor," said Revd Alison Tomlin, President of the Methodist
Conference. "Let us be clear this recession was not caused by the
poor, those on benefits, or even benefit cheats. The poorest in
society only got poorer during the boom years and it's simply not
fair to make them pay for the bust.
"Questions also need to be asked about the £7 billion of
uncollected tax revenues that the Chancellor claims he is
targeting. According to the HMRC, there is approximately £42
billion in uncollected revenues; why does Mr Osborne only speak of
£7 billion?"
Revd Graham Sparkes, Head of Faith and Unity at the Baptist Union
of Great Britain, said: "There is already deep concern that the
severe reductions in welfare provision will cause immense hardship
to the most vulnerable. This misuse of figures to exaggerate the
scale of benefit fraud only adds to the sense of injustice."
Mr Simon Loveitt, Public Issues Spokesperson for the United
Reformed Church, added: "The coalition government is very keen to
talk about fairness and the false notion that 'we are all in this
together', but the Chancellor's exaggeration of fraud and last
week's Comprehensive Spending Review confirm the grim reality that
it is those who are most vulnerable who will pay the price for that
which is so clearly not their fault."