Churches unite over benefit reforms

CHURCHES on both sides of the border are encouraging politicians to eliminate or ameliorate cuts in benefits and welfare provision in a controversial bill being pushed through the Westminster parliament under reserved powers.

The Church of Scotland's Church and Society Council has joined with charities, unions, civic and faith bodies to urge Scottish MPs to vote to keep seven Welfare Reform Bill amendments won by Crossbench and other peers in the House of Lords.

Methodists, the United Reformed Church, Baptists and Quakers have also come out against the government's top-slicing benefit cap, and have produced a detailed briefing on the issue.

Disabled and sick Spartacus campaigners have led the opposition to key elements in the bill, though there is agreement in principle on a Universal Credit and simplification of the system. They share the values of the Poverty Truth Commission that "nothing about us without us is for us".

Scots MPs lobbied on Welfare Reform Bill

LEADING charities, faith groups and trade unions have written to Scottish MPs urging them to vote to uphold a series of amendments to the controversial Welfare Reform Bill.

The Westminster government has been defeated six times by the House of Lords, but is so far refusing to listen to the deep concerns of people living with poverty, disability, sickness and multiple disadvantages.

The Scottish Campaign on Welfare Reform, an umbrella body of more than 60 organisations, has called on MPs to ratify the six amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill in the Commons on 1st February 2012.

The SCWR, with members including the Scottish Trades’ Union Congress, Oxfam, Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland and the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council, warned a reversal of the amendments would have dire consequences for more than half a million people.

Disabled activists have played a major role in highlighting a range of cuts and injustices in the current WRB proposals, and are demanding a genuine say in decisions directly impacting their lives.

Call for formal inquiry into kinship care

CARERS and charities have called for a formal inquiry to be launched into kinship care in Scotland, following growing concern about neglected children.

Voluntary sector groups and carers gave evidence recently to the Scottish parliament's education committee and are determined to continue pressing their case, as we have reported extensively here.

Lindsay Isaacs of the Kinship Care Service was among those calling for an inquiry as the best way of tackling multiple concerns arising from the financial and social constraints experienced by children and carers alike.

These include:

* the performance of local authorities in discharging their responsibilities
* benefits
* housing support
* information support
* access to counselling services
* the definition of looked-after children 
* early intervention strategies

More about these developments here.

Supporting Families debate

JACKIE Baillie MSP has put forward a Supporting Families resolution in the Scottish Parliament today, and Aileen Campbell has been seeking to amend it. The issue in debate is what has - and has not - been done to support carers, and by whom.

The resolution (S4M-01828 ) reads: That the Parliament recognises the crucial role that kinship carers play in supporting the most vulnerable children and believes that they should be supported financially at an equivalent level to foster carers; notes the commitment given by the First Minister on 27 September 2007 to fast-track £10 million to fund this; further notes commitments made by successive ministers for Education and Lifelong Learning and Children and Early Years that this promise would be met via the concordat with local government by 2011 at the latest; regrets that these promises to kinship carers and the people they care for have been broken, and calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that local authorities are provided with the funds to ensure that kinship carers are properly supported and that this promise is finally met.

The amendment wishes to: leave out from first “notes” to end and insert “welcomes that substantial resources have been provided to local authorities to allow them to provide financial support to kinship carers; recognises that, unlike its predecessors, the 2007-11 Scottish administration acted to introduce regulations to allow financial support to be provided to kinship carers; supports wider efforts to empower families, including the development of a national parenting strategy, the Play, Talk, Read campaign and the roll-out of the Family Nurse Partnership; condemns the UK benefits system as not being fit for purpose as it penalises kinship carers and other vulnerable groups, and calls on the UK Government to fairly support kinship carers.