1
Sheffield Poverty Update No.21 April 2012
Church Action on Poverty is a national ecumenical Christian social justice charity, committed totackling poverty in the UK. We work in partnership with churches and with people in povertythemselves to find solutions to poverty, locally, nationally and globally1
J
OHN
3:16-18New International Version (NIV)
16
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
17
If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
18
Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth
Make your Pledge to Close the Gap between rich andpoor.
Give, Act and Pray
Sheffield Church Action on Poverty can provide a speaker to deliver a presentation on this campaign toChurch groups please contact our secretary
There is little sign that narrowing the gap between rich and poor is a priority within our culture,and therefore little sign of increased fulfilment for people on both sides of the gap. There are goodpragmatic reasons for working to close the gap. For Christians there is something more.
The gapis an affront to God who made all human beings of equal worth.
The full publication can be downloaded from Church Action on Poverty web site. The publicationincludes articles by 11 prominent Christians of different denominations. They explore different
‘gaps’ or examples of inequality, including the Tax Gap, the Pay Ga
p, the Price Gap, the PowerGap, and others
2
Fairness Commission Sheffield City Council has set up a Fairness Commission to look at the nature, extent, causesand impact of inequalities in the City and to make recommendations for tackling them. The Commission has askedindividuals and organisations with an interest in Sheffield to submit written evidence to help with its inquiry.Sheffield Church Action On Poverty have made a submission, a summary is given below.The churches and Christian based projects already provide extensive support to those who are poor and vulnerable inthe city; through meals, food banks, day centres care for the elderly and lunch clubs, furniture stores, debt advice andhostels.The churches will not walk by on the other side as poverty increases but will not be able to replace the extensiveservices suffering cuts. .We expect that over the next few years unemployment, poverty and inequality will increase in Sheffield as the cuts
and ‘welfare reform’ take full effect.
There will be a need for major action funded at national level to stimulateenterprise and/or to develop employment and training schemes if a disastrous period of large scale long termunemployment is to be avoided. Even so, much poverty and inequality will remain. National action affecting the taxsystem and introducing pay ratios within organisations would be needed to tackle this. Given our concern to protectthe vulnerable, we recommend the following
three priorities at city level
:
Maintain strong advice services in the city
–
a vital protection for vulnerable people affected by benefitchanges and unemployment.
Encourage the introduction of the living wage as widely as possible in local organisations as aprotection for the lower-paid.
Adopt a strategy for bridging the gap of understanding between the ’two cities’
* both at school leveland among adults
*the wealthy south west and the poorer north and east
Only national action can arrest the current trend towards rising unemployment, poverty and inequality but it is worthwhile to look at city level action as well.
Sheffield Church Action On Poverty AGMThursday 10
th
May at the Quaker Meeting House,at 7pm (refreshments from 6.15)All welcome
“Capitalism, Jesus and the Coalition”
Speaker Revd. Noel Irwin from Victoria Hall
And a chance to view a clip from Channel 4’s film ‘Poor Kids’
.
Independent analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has suggested that child poverty will rise by 400,000 children in the
current parliament, and a further 400,000 children in the next parliament, under the government’s current distri
bution of measures for deficit reduction
3
Poverty and Homelessness
Week
–
Several Churches held services and SheffieldChurch on Poverty held its service at the Anglican Cathedral. The theme of the weekwas to look at the barriers that divide us and lead to marginalisation of groups insociety. Three projects talked to us about their work at our meeting hosted by St.Wilfrids Centre.
The Furnival
Iain Cloke and Ben Harper spoke on the Stereotyping of young people and the wasted potential.The Project works with young people who have disengaged with the educational system, they already feel failure as far aseducation is concerned and both they and their families mistrust professionals.The work is to to increase their, confidence, social skills, literacy, numeracy ( which is poor because of past poor schoolattendance) and work with parents. The Furnival tries to make a long-term commitment. believing long-term commitment andsupport is very important; and builds success in small steps.
Avanti
Amy Whitell spoke on this project which is a Microfinance project that gives money and finance to help disadvantaged set up inbusiness. The Microfinance idea originally came from the third world. Those with a criminal record, poor literacy etc cannot getbank loans so Avanti give Start up finance with a £1000 donation.The project also offers training courses for prisoners and ex-offenders who are potential entrepreneurs Referrals are made byProbation services and the maximum loan is £2000 over 2 years, interest is at the rate of inflation.
St Wilfrid’s
Kevin Bradley spoke on the projectSt Wifrids
’s is a day
centre for vulnerable people including homeless, asylum seekers, those with mental health issues, learningdifficulties and those who are vulnerable. In Kevi
n’s opinion, mo
st homeless people have a mental health problem.St Wilfrids are planning a 52 bed residential centre for people with a 2 year contract with support . Kevin believes we shouldtreat everyone with respect--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Prayer from Church Urban Fund:
Almighty God
, You who are faithful, true and righteous in all your ways;Teach us to choose what is right, and stand against that which is evil.Teach us to love justice and mercy, and stand against oppression and exploitation.Show us where we are indifferent to injustice
Sheffield CAP- Civic Breakfast on 21 March 2012
, Revd Philip Bee of the Churches Regional Commission for
Yorkshire and the Humber spoke on welfare reform .He drew comparisons with a tsunami in that what we have seenin natural disaster is a weight of water that simply keeps on coming devouring all in its path and leaves much misery
behind and this could be the same in reductions in welfare. For example, one estimate is that nationally between360,000 and 750,000 claimants for Disability Living Allowance will not receive the new benefit that will replace it.
Another estimate is that claimant numbers for incapacity benefit will be cut by one million by 2014, because of more
stringent assessment on migration to employment and support allowance and because a 12 month time limit onbenefit receipt will apply in many cases. After many years on benefit, people will have to seek work in a sluggish jobs
market. Universal credit should reduce some disincentives to work and create a complex pattern of winners and losersand no doubt teething problems as massive new computer systems are introduced. Monthly rather than fortnightly or
weekly payment could exacerbate debt problems. Philip concluded that the cuts ‘are being borne disproportionately bythose who are financially vulnerable’
In his final remarks he said that we have the cuts and welfare reform but we have not had the moral argument whether
the cuts are right or wrong
Jane Perry continued the theme and said there was a challenge here and was the Church not only able to respond but
was it ready.Nick Waterfield of Parson Cross Iniative gave an example of one young woman who needed some baby milk but was
being denied by the benefit system.Councilor Julie Dore reminded the breakfast that it is not only people on benefits who are in poverty but workingpeople on low income
Frances Potter of Sharrow CAB
–
brought the changes in working tax credit (wtc) to the attention of the meetingMentioning that those currently receiving wtc when working for 16 hours a week will lose the wtc unless they work for24 hours a week meaning that many part time low earners will lose a significant amount of income.
Search History:
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
p.
Sheffield Poverty Update 21, April 2012
Regular newsletter fo Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield
60
Reads
0
Readcasts
33
Embed Views
More From This User
Notes
Load more
