
In one of the most significant political interventions by leading members of the Church of England since the Faith in the City report in 1985, 25 of its bishops have blamed "cutbacks to and failures in the benefit system" for forcing people to use food banks. They are joined by two bishops from the Church in Wales, 14 Methodist districts chairs and two Quakers.
In an open letter published in the Daily Mirror on Thursday, the faith leaders write: "We must, as a society, face up to the fact that over half of people using food banks have been put in that situation by cutbacks to and failures in the benefit system, whether it be payment delays or punitive sanctions."
The intervention, part of the End Hunger Fast campaign which will be launched at the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday on 5 March, follows the description of the government's welfare reforms as a disgrace by the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Vincent Nichols.
Comment:
Craigslist "thrill killer" claims to have killed 22 others with Satanic cult