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welfare state

  • 5 Apr 2013
    Class: It's about power and wealth, not tastes in music

    This week, I completed a survey on the BBC website to discover which class I belong to. In reality, I don't have much doubt about which class I belong to, so I was really discovering more about the people who designed the survey than I was about myself.

  • 13 Mar 2013
    Benefits and bishops: What IDS didn't say

    I have often been critical of the Church of England’s leadership for being slow to speak out on issues of economic justice. I’m therefore delighted that 43 CofE bishops have criticised the coalition for cutting benefits (or technically, for raising them by one percent, which is below the rate of inflation and therefore a cut in all but name).

  • 31 Dec 2012
    No (tax) credit for Iain Duncan Smith

    It's New Year's Eve, newsrooms are quiet and casual comments by ministers are enough to make top headlines. Today, Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has made the news with some vaguely worded attacks on the system of tax credits.

  • 29 Dec 2012
    'Tough choices', Cabinet paper revelations, and the assault on welfare

    UK government Cabinet papers from 1982, now released under the 30-year disclosure rule, confirm that the dismantling of the welfare state, the privatisation of the NHS and the savage cutting of public services has been a long-held ambition of the Conservative party.

  • 9 Dec 2012
    Church Urban Fund chair condemns cuts and backs Beveridge principle

    The chair of the Church Urban Fund has criticised punitive government welfare cuts and the emaciation of the social contract behind the welfare state.

  • 9 Dec 2012
    Osborne's talk of 'skivers' bears scant relation to the truth

    The following is the full text of the letter to the Observer newspaper (9 December 2012), on the impact of the government's autumn budget statement, from charities, churches, trade unions and NGOs. Ekklesia fully endorses the sentiment and message of this letter.

  • 25 Jun 2012
    Workfare to be challenged in High Court

    The government’s controversial 'workfare' programme - by which unemployed people are required to work for their benefits – is to face a legal challenge this week.

  • 17 May 2012
    Celebrations as government cuts ties with workfare company

    Unemployed people and welfare rights campaigners are holding a “leaving party” following the end of a controversial government contract with A4e.

  • 12 Mar 2012
    Invulnerable people

    Regular readers of my blog (a small but much appreciated group!) may wonder if I've got a bit obsessed with the Occupy eviction and my forced removal from the steps of St Paul's Cathedral. Looking back now, I realise that my last five blog entries have been about it.

  • 29 Jan 2012
    Bishop Wallace Benn and Stephen Green - the confusion continues

    The saga of Bishop Wallace Benn and the pro-rape booklet goes on and on. Having first withdrawn his endorsement of the booklet, then apologised, he has now offered what appears to be an attempt at an explanation.