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Church of England bishops demand action over hunger Church of England bishops demand action over hunger
(about 3 hours later)
Forty-two Christian leaders, including 24 Anglican bishops, have signed a letter urging David Cameron to ensure everyone in the UK gets enough to eat. Forty-three Christian leaders, including 27 Anglican bishops, have signed a letter urging David Cameron to ensure people get enough to eat.
They argue that "cutbacks and failures" in the benefits system are forcing thousands of people to use food banks.They argue that "cutbacks and failures" in the benefits system are forcing thousands of people to use food banks.
The End Hunger Fast campaign called the situation "truly shocking". It wants a national day of fasting on 4 April.The End Hunger Fast campaign called the situation "truly shocking". It wants a national day of fasting on 4 April.
But the government said it wanted to help people "stand on their own two feet" by cutting welfare dependency.But the government said it wanted to help people "stand on their own two feet" by cutting welfare dependency.
The government's welfare reforms include: The letter comes after Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, warned last weekend that welfare reform was leaving people in "destitution" and labelled it a "disgrace".
Last week, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, said the "basic safety net that was there to guarantee that people would not be left in hunger or in destitution has actually been torn apart. It no longer exists and that is a real, real dramatic crisis." But on Wednesday the prime minister defended the changes as a "moral mission" to return people to work from a life of dependency on the state.
'Triple whammy''Triple whammy'
But the prime minister defended his welfare changes as a "moral mission" to return people to work from a life of dependency on the state. The Christians who have signed the letter in the Daily Mirror newspaper include the bishops of Durham, Manchester and Leicester, as well as Quaker and Methodist leaders.
The Christians signing the letter to the Mirror newspaper include the bishops of Durham, Manchester and Leicester, as well as Quaker and Methodist leaders. The letter stated: "We often hear talk of hard choices. Surely few can be harder than that faced by the tens of thousands of older people who must 'heat or eat' each winter, harder than those faced by families whose wages have stayed flat while food prices have gone up 30% in just five years.
It states: "We often hear talk of hard choices. Surely few can be harder than that faced by the tens of thousands of older people who must 'heat or eat' each winter, harder than those faced by families whose wages have stayed flat while food prices have gone up 30% in just five years.
"Yet beyond even this 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.""Yet beyond even this 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."
End Hunger Fast says more than half a million people have received three days' emergency food from Trussell Trust food banks in the UK since Easter last year. The UK is in the midst of the most radical shake-up of the welfare system for decades. The government's welfare reforms include:
Keith Hebden of End Hunger Fast said: "All kinds of circumstances push people to the edges of society where they now face a triple whammy of welfare cuts, wage stagnation, and food price rises. The government is failing in its duty of care to provide a basic safety net for its own citizens." End Hunger Fast said more than half a million people had received three days' emergency food from Trussell Trust food banks in the UK since Easter last year.
But a Downing Street spokesman said: "Of course many families are facing tough times as a result of the worst recession in a century." Keith Hebden of End Hunger Fast said: "All kinds of circumstances push people to the edges of society where they now face a triple whammy of welfare cuts, wage stagnation, and food price rises.
"The government is failing in its duty of care to provide a basic safety net for its own citizens."
'Penalised not helped'
Shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves said the letter should act as a "wake-up call" to Mr Cameron.
"His government's policies are making life harder for families with a cost-of-living crisis making workers £1,600 worse off and the bedroom tax forcing hundreds of thousands to food banks," she said.
"This Tory-led government's welfare reforms have penalised, rather than helped, those doing the right thing."
A Downing Street spokesman said: "Of course many families are facing tough times as a result of the worst recession in a century."
He added that the welfare reforms were "about building a country where people are not trapped in a cycle of dependency but are able to get on, stand on their own two feet and build a better life for themselves and their family".He added that the welfare reforms were "about building a country where people are not trapped in a cycle of dependency but are able to get on, stand on their own two feet and build a better life for themselves and their family".
They would bring "new purpose, new opportunity, new hope and new responsibility to people who had previously been written off with no chance" and were "at the heart of our social and moral mission in politics today".They would bring "new purpose, new opportunity, new hope and new responsibility to people who had previously been written off with no chance" and were "at the heart of our social and moral mission in politics today".