Church Action on Poverty has called on the Government to reconsider changes in the last Budget which have increased tax for the poorest families.

Church Action on Poverty (CAP) has warmly welcomed a new report which finds significant failings in the UK asylum system. The report condemns the Government policy of making refused asylum-seekers destitute.

An initiative in which 100 people have lived as failed asylum seekers for a week in a 'visible act of solidarity', comes to an end this Saturday. The people frpom across the country spent a week this Lent living on £3.50 and a typical food parcel in a project co-ordinated by the Boaz Trust.

A number of Christians from Oldham are joining the national Endurance Challenge, backed by Church Action on Poverty, in which they attempt to live off £6.50 for food and £3.50 for transport for a week.

National ecumenical charity Church Action on Poverty is urging people to take on the life of someone who has been refused asylum, for a week during Lent, in order to understand what it is like to be in their shoes.

Church agencies in Britain will be combining efforts during Poverty and Homelessness Action Week, from 26 January to 3 February, to highlight both the human face of inequality and the need to make it a public policy priority.

A new Government scheme which is being supported by Church Action on Poverty is to allow communities a direct say in how council money is spent. Hazel Blears announced yesterday that local communities will get the chance to access their own 'community kitty'

A challenging new programme has been launched to help church congregations engage with poverty and social injustice in Britain. It is backed by a wide range of church bodies, and also the religion and society think-tank Ekklesia.