Caritas Social Action Network (Csan), the social action arm of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, has launched a new campaign on the Cost of Living Crisis.
In line with previous statements by the Bishop’s conference, the campaign asks the government to raise benefits in line with inflation, scrap the two-child limit on child benefits and prioritise the most vulnerable in tax and welfare policy.
Beyond this, Csan, founded in 2003, calls for the government to “work with the Catholic community and all other faith groups on a vision for a poverty-free country in line with the in line with the UN’s sustainable development goal number one: no poverty.”
Warning that “more people are being dragged into poverty” by the ongoing crisis, the statement calls for Catholics to “raise a prophetic voice in the face of this urgent humanitarian need.”
The campaign asks Catholics to write to their MPs requesting the new government introduce the above policies, potentially through face-to-face meetings and constructive dialogue on how best to help the vulnerable. Csan has requested Catholics send case studies on the Catholic response to the crisis to Csan by email at admin@csan.org.uk.
Speaking to The Tablet, Csan’s Chief Executive Raymond Friel, said that the poorest in society “face the prospect of a long recession, growing unemployment and cuts to vital public services, which are already under huge strain following years of under investment and the impact of the pandemic.”
Although a resolution of the crisis seems a long way off, Friel stressed that immediate steps are still possible. “In the first instance we can support our bishops and their ‘asks’ of the new government. We can tell our MPs in our letters and in meetings with them what the reality of poverty is like in our communities and how Catholics are responding. We can urge our MPs to work together on a vision for a poverty-free country.”
The Bank of England warned last week that the UK is faces its longest recession since records began, with unemployment estimated to double by 2025, after two years of economic decline.
According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, around 14.5 million people in the UK, including 4.3 million children, live in poverty. This figure is expected to increase by several million as a result of the ongoing cost of living crisis, with those in low-paid work and on benefits especially hard-hit by the increase in basic living costs.
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