Commenting on a new churches’ report, The lies we tell ourselves: ending comfortable myths about poverty (1 March 2013), Simon Barrow, co-director of the Christian thinktank Ekklesia, which has argued that public policy must be reformed around the concerns, experience, skills and insights of the most vulnerable in society, said:
“This is a solid and important piece of work, based on thorough research and first-hand experience.
“It confronts the most common untruths told about people who are in poverty or in receipt of benefits, and it highlights some of the statistics most abused in public debate, in the media and by politicians seeking to justify a restructuring of welfare which is actually taking resources away from those who need them most.
“Churches, civil society groups, charities and coalitions of people struggling against the targeting of austerity programmes against the most vulnerable in society have a duty to tell the truth in the face of widely peddled distortions and lies.”
* Read the full report here: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/18086