LIMITING Universal Credit payments to cover just two children was wrong and should be ended, the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, told the House of Lords last Friday.Introducing the Second Reading of his Bill to abolish the restriction, he said that the policy contradicted the belief that every child should be treated equally. “This policy is the biggest driver of the increase in child poverty,” he said. “Families’ falling into difficulty are discovering that the social-security system is not supporting their whole family as they expected, where they are a larger family. The third child is ignored, and thus the whole family suffers.”Work by the Benefit Changes and Larger Families project had concluded that the two-child limit’s main outcome was to drive financial hardship and often destitution. “This is unacceptable. It is enough reason for the policy to be scrapped,” the Bishop said.While the Government saw it as a money-saving exercise, research had found that children who had experienced poverty were less likely to pay tax, less likely to have high-paid jobs, and more likely to need support from public services. “The truth is that this policy will likely increase the long-term cost to the public purse,” Bishop Butler said.“More important are the unquantifiable impacts: the suffering of living in an overcrowded home, or not being able to join in with costly school activities and the shame that sometimes accompanies that.”Exemptions did not account for the disproportional impact on people of ethnic-minority and faith backgrounds. “Some faith groups are penalised because, for them, contraception and termination are simply not valid options,” he said.A survey by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service had found that 57 per cent of expectant mothers who were aware of the two-child limit said that it was important in deciding whether to continue the pregnancy. “The fact that some women could feel pressured by a government policy to terminate a pregnancy that they may have otherwise wanted seems abhorrent,” the Bishop said.“It is clear to me that this policy is ineffective, devastating in impact, and essentially immoral in character. It is a policy which is defended on terms that do not add up. It should be embarrassing that the price paid for its fallacies are our children.”His call for an impact report on the policy was rejected by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Work and Pensions, Baroness Stedman-Scott, who said that the Government believed that the most sustainable way to lift children out of poverty was by supporting parents into work and progressing in it, wherever possible.“This requires a balanced system that provides strong work incentives and support for those who need it, but also ensures a sense of fairness to the taxpayer and to the many working families who do not see their incomes rise when they have more children. We judge that the policy to support a maximum of two children is a proportionate way to achieve these objectives,” she said.Concluding the debate, the Bishop said: “We are seeing an increase in child poverty, yet there seems to be a lack of willingness to address that where it is growing. I accept that some action is being taken, but it is not stopping some getting poorer and poorer, and some becoming in danger of falling into destitution.”
On Saturday July 16th there will be a CHURCH VISION MORNING. It will take place at the Winn Hall, from 9.30 am to 12:30 pm. Reverend Rutton Viccajee explains: “This is an exciting opportunity to review where we are, what we have, share ideas, and set our overall objectives for the coming year or so.“What’s the big picture? Think in terms of large concepts: church (however defined), worship, outreach, pastoral, discipleship, all age/ families (these are just examples).“What are the priorities, even if they overlap? In fact, especially if they overlap! Once we know that, we can then drill down from there in terms of planning how to implement.Please bring your blue sky thinking, ideas, concerns, prayers, inspirations, and anything else useful.“There is no agenda here – save what we make for ourselves, albeit in faith, and with prayer. That’s why we need YOU! If you want to send in ideas, concerns or thoughts in advance, especially if you can’t be there in person – that also would be very welcome. Just drop me a line at rutton@stnicolascranleigh.org.uk“I really want to hear from YOU! (It’s the silence that hurts!)May God bless us all at this time.Rutton
The General Synod has welcomed a Church of England report paving the way for an overhaul of clergy discipline with a new system for the investigation and disposal of a range of complaints.Members voted to back the first moves to create legislation for a Clergy Conduct Measure, replacing the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) 2003.The vote follows the publication of the report Under Authority Revisited which sets out proposals for complaints to be allocated into three different tracks, depending on seriousness. Opening the debate, the Bishop of Worcester, John Inge (see photo), who headed the Implementation Group that drew up the report, said that the time for change was ‘overdue’.“Whilst the critique of the CDM could be extensive, the principal failing of it as a piece of legislation lies in its inflexibility to respond to different levels of misconduct and complaint,” he told the Synod.“In meeting our objectives the Implementation Group has sought to apply four fundamental principles – first, the process must provide for a proportionate and efficient way of dealing with a much wider range of grievances and misconduct. Secondly, the process must protect clergy from frivolous, malicious and vexatious accusations. “Thirdly, there must be swift access to justice for both those who have been wronged and those who face allegations. And fourthly, the rules of natural justice must permeate the system as a visible sign of fairness.“The report has been published after a working group was set up to respond to the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) for the Church of England to make improvements to the CDM in dealing with safeguarding complaints.The findings of the working group identified that there was a pressing need for the creation of a system that could deal with different levels of misconduct and behaviour and that the CDM needed replacing in full.• Bishop John Inge is Chair of the Clergy Conduct Measure Implementation Group which was formed last year to formulate legislative proposals for the creation of a new Clergy Conduct Measure. The text of the motion passed is below: ‘That this Synod: (a) welcome the report from the Clergy Conduct Measure Implementation Group (GS 2277); and (b) request that the Archbishops’ Council introduce legislation to give effect to the report’s recommendations for first consideration by this Synod at the next available opportunity.’
