28 October 2013
Church leaders criticise Lord Freud’s failure to apologise on government’s behalf
- "Apologise for misrepresenting the poor," Churches urge government representative
Christian leaders, including the Right Revds Bishops Tim Stevens
and Nick Baines, have criticised Lord Freud, Minister for Welfare
Reform, for failing to apologise on behalf of the government for
misrepresenting the poor.
Twelve senior representatives from Churches and Christian
organisations in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales have written to Lord
Freud after he failed to affirm that steps would be taken in
order to ensure that the poor would no longer be misrepresented by
the government.
"We do not wish to live in a society where personal responsibility
is demanded of the vulnerable but is not required of those who
exercise power," their letter states. "All people are valued
creations of God who deserve to be treated with dignity and
respect. An essential component of this is to be spoken of
truthfully, including benefit claimants."
The Prime Minister David Cameron asked Lord Freud to reply on his
behalf to a letter from ten Church denominations based in all four
nations of the UK, as well as two major national ecumenical
charities.
The Church leaders' letter dated 6
June expressed concern over government ministers making
demonstrably untrue statements stigmatising the most vulnerable in
society. However, Lord Freud's reply "neither attempts to answer
nor even mentions any of the points raised" in their letter. Church
leaders criticised this neglect as "both surprising and
disappointing".
April saw some of the most controversial and wide ranging changes
to the benefit system in a generation. In March, the Baptist Union
of Great Britain; the Church of Scotland; the Methodist Church in
Britain and the United Reformed Church launched a report - The lies we tell ourselves: ending
comfortable myths about poverty - confronting the most common
myths told about people who are in poverty or in receipt of
benefits as well as highlighting some of the most abused
statistics.
ENDS
Notes:
Read the Churches' letter to the Prime Minister
here.
Read Lord Freud's response here.
Read the Churches reply to Lord Freud here.