The government's new £7 billion 'fairness premium' funding package to
help poor families will not adequately protect Britain’s most
disadvantaged, says ecumenical charity Church Action on Poverty.
The package is intended to offset the impact of swingeing public
spending cuts across the UK, and will provide 15 hours a week of free
nursery education to two-year-olds from the poorest 20 per cent of
families.
More support will be aimed at older children through a “pupil
premium”. There will be a “student premium” for those in tertiary
education.
But student leaders say that this is "wholly inadequate" and "a
sticking plaster" in the face of massive incoming increases in student
fees and living costs.
The 'fairness' strategy has been pushed by the Deputy Prime Minister
and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who is under pressure for his
party's failure to stand up for the social justice commitments it made
during the last General Election, prior to entering the coalition
government as a junior partner to the Prime Minister David Cameron's
Conservatives.
Clegg says the poor can be protected as the government seeks to cut
the national deficit far faster than many economists, including a former
CEO of the World Bank, recommend.
But Liam Purcell from Church Action on Poverty says that while the
‘fairness premium’ would help some of the UK’s poorest and most
disadvantaged children, "We fear that it will not be enough to counter
the damage likely to be done to people and communities by the coming
cuts in public spending.”
Purcell continues: “The impact of those cuts will be ten times
greater for people in poverty than for the wealthy people who caused
this economic crisis in the first place.”
Church Action on Poverty has called on the coalition government to
ensure that the burden of the cuts “does not fall on those least able to
bear it”.
“It will take more than this ‘premium’ to create a really fair
society,” Purcell declared. “We hope all churches will join us in
standing alongside the poorest and most vulnerable people in our
society.”
Progressive Christian groups have criticised the vagueness of the
government's 'fairness' rhetoric, pointing out that it is no substitute
for genuine, measurable justice - just as the 'big society' does not
necessarily equate with the good society that benefits all, but
especially the most vulnerable.
It is anticipated that the Comprehensive Spending Review on 20
October 2010 will detail cuts averaging 25 per cent across most
government departments over five years.
More on Church Action on Poverty: http://www.church-poverty.org.uk/
SIC: Ekklesia/UK