ONE of Britain's most senior Catholic figures has criticised the Government's welfare reform programme as a "disgrace" that is driving people to destitution.
In one of the most strongly worded attacks yet by a senior church figure, Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, said that the so-called bedroom tax and other reforms of benefits had taken away a basic safety net.
The leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, who is a Cardinal-designate, described two problems with the reforms introduced last year.
He said safety the net that should guarantee people are not left in hunger or destitution "has actually been torn apart. It no longer exists, and that is a real, real dramatic crisis."
He added he had also been told the administration of social assistance had become "more and more punitive."
The church leader said this means if "the applicants don't get it right then they have to wait and they have to wait for 10 days, for two weeks - with nothing.
He added: "That's why the role of food banks has become so crucial for so many people in Britain today. And for a country of our affluence that quite frankly is a disgrace."
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said reform had been needed because the old benefits system was "trapping" people it was designed to help.
He said: "It's wrong to talk of removing a safety net when we're spending £94 billion a year on working-age benefits and the welfare system supports millions of people who are on low incomes or unemployed."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article