Government Has Taken Its 'Eye Off the Ball' On Poverty, Says Bishop Of Manchester

The Bishop of Manchester has warned of 'unparalleled' levels of homelessness in the city as a result of welfare cuts. 

The Bishop thas said that welfare provision had been 'torn apart' by the cuts as he accused the Government of taking its 'eye off the ball' when it comes to poverty. 

He said he could not recall the same levels of visible homelessness in past decades despite the city being poorer then than it is now. 

 Image: Bishop of Manchester, David Walker

'I think visible street homelessness is at a level unparalleled in my lifetime, and I'm 61 now,' he said.

'As a teenager I crossed the centre of Manchester every morning on my way to and from school and I did not see the scenes I'm seeing now.

'By the mid-70s, Manchester was economically poorer than it is now, and yet there was not the visible homelessness.

'There were a lot of people who were homeless then, but there was basic funding for hostels. They weren't great, but they were better than nothing at all.'

He said that the cause of destitution has also changed as he is seeing more and more people falling into financial hardship who are actually working.  

'Until this year, if you'd asked me what the main causes were I'd say relationship breakdown - which could be domestic violence or a break-up or a young person kicked out by a step parent,' he said. 

'And then number two would have been mental health issues, where someone's mental health takes a turn and every aspect of their life can be badly damaged. Then, often as a consequences of that, someone ends up with a dependency on drugs or alcohol.

'What's become clear in the last year or two is the number of people where it's simply poverty.

'The number of people I've met in recent times in night shelters who have actually got a job - yet end up for at least a period of time with nowhere to sleep.'

The bishop, who heads up the city's homelessness partnership, warned that 1,000 people across the city are currently in temporary accommodation as local housing allowance is no longer sufficient to pay for rents that have risen above rates of inflation.

He criticised the limit on child benefit to two children and freezes to housing benefit for private tenants, saying that holes have been torn in the safety net and 'too many people are falling through'. 

While the Government has claimed that absolute poverty has gone down, Bishop Walker questioned this. 

'I think a lot more does lie at the door of government,' he said.

'I'm never really sure what 'absolute' poverty means. You are poor if you can't afford to participate adequately in the society of which you are a part.

'I think relative poverty is as important as absolute poverty. If children can't participate in things their peer group can, that's poverty.'

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