The government is using many of the clasic tools of propaganda to influence our thinking about 'welfare' and those who receive it, says Jill Segger. She argues that we need to turn again to the real meaning of Jesus' transformative relationships with the despised.
A Justice Forum on welfare and benefit reform, the first of a series organised by the Diocese of Oxford,took place today (23 May) at the Wesley Memorial Church in Oxford.
The TUC has called on the UK Statistics Authority to investigate Iain Duncan Smith for "misusing" official statistics to justify the government's benefits cap.
The fact that the Chancellor is failing to fix the economy, even by his own measures, seems undeniable. Should we be in any doubt, the New Economics Foundation (NEF) has provided this helpful graph.
Thanks to Dr Éoin Clarke (BedroomTax@hotmail.com) and his website, The Green Benches (http://www.greenbenchesuk.com/), named after the colour of seats in the UK House of Commons, a list is available of the 57 peaceful protests against the government's Bedroom Tax - the majority of which take place on Saturday 16 March 2013. Details can be confirmed through the hyperlinks in brackets below.
Over 40 Church of England bishops have signed an letter to the government in the media criticising its Benefits Uprating Bill as an attack on the poorest.
The #ESAendgame online campaign to collect comments and stories concerning people’s experience of Employment and Support Allowance and the qualifying Work Capacity Assessment (WCA), initiated by disability researcher and activist Sue Marsh, has produced around 430 submissions so far (http://t.co/x2oRAeu0Rd).
Yesterday Ekklesia published a large selection of online responses to disability research and activist Sue Marsh's call for people to kickstart the 'ESA End Game' campaign to challenge the iniquities around Employment and Support Allowance (http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/f31.htm).