Justin Welby spoke of his shock at the “tragedy” of hunger in Britain today and blamed “unnecessary problems” in government benefit administration as he launched a report on food poverty in the Houses of Parliament.
The Archbishop of Canterbury warned a “large body of evidence” pointed to delays in benefit payments and the government’s sanctions policy being major causes behind why people use food banks.
However Welby cautioned against overly-politicising the debate.
“This is not saying the government is a complete failure any more than it is a saying it is a complete success,” he said as he launched the report by the all-party parliamentary group on hunger.
“No one gets it right all the time.”
The launch marked the anniversary of the first report into hunger by the cross-party group and Frank Field MP, the chair of the group, told Christian Today of his “real sense of sadness” that there was a need to do another report one year on.
“The government seems to treat the scandal of hunger as little more than a boil of no significance on our society,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. The body of our country is wreaked by a raging fever called hunger.”
Field told Christian Today there was a “lack of urgency” in tackling this “huge national disgrace.”
“As a nation we cannot say how many countless children went to bed hungry last night and took their hunger into school tomorrow let alone why that is,” he said. ... Read More