Ways to take action – November policy update
“Today’s vast and powerful new structures, born from the pursuit of power, profit, and greed, must not be met with silence. For a global economy of exclusion and inequality must be confronted by an inclusive love, one that defends human dignity and seeks the common good.” Pope Francis
We’re committed to calling for a better, more just world where all people can live in dignity and have the opportunity to thrive. We advocate for changes to the policies and systems that affect those in need and those we walk alongside in our work.
We publish regular updates like this one, which will not only keep you informed about campaigns and activities calling for change, but will also highlight any actions you can take to help make a difference and raise awareness.
Hopefully these updates will inspire you to actively participate and make a difference in your community. We’d love to hear from you if you do, so get in touch and let us know what you’ve been up to.
Our policy and advocacy priorities
In light of emerging information, we continue to refine our specific policy and advocacy priorities to highlight changes to systems and policies necessary to improve the lives of people in our communities.
Our core policy and advocacy priorities are based on our experiences of delivering practical action and seeing problems in our communities. They are broken down into four specific areas: poverty and disadvantage; children and young people; housing security and homelessness; and welcoming migrants and refugees.
Take a look at our updated website page to find out more.
Our response to the Autumn Budget statement
Last month, we outlined what we were hoping to see in the Autumn Budget Statement from the Government. We called for the Government to make some urgent changes to begin to address issues of poverty and homelessness, as well as funding in the charity sector.
Following the Chancellor’s announcement of the Budget at the end of October, we welcomed a number of positive developments, but believe that the Budget does not go far enough to address the systemic drivers of poverty or to support charities like ours.
You can read our full response to the budget here.
Anti-poverty campaign raised in the House of Commons
We are part of the Let’s End Poverty movement which launched a campaign in October which was mentioned at Prime Minister’s Questions and responded to by the Prime Minister.
The “Dear Prime Minister…” campaign is asking for the expertise of people with lived experience of poverty to be integral to policymaking that addresses issues around poverty. Letters written by people who have experienced poverty have been delivered to the Prime Minister, and a launch event was held in Parliament where 13 people who wrote letters shared their experiences and expertise with MPs and Peers.
The following day, Cat Smith MP raised the campaign at Prime Minister’s Questions, and in response Keir Starmer said, “The letters are honest, powerful and important. They hold up a mirror to our country.” You can watch the moment here.
We’re looking forward to sharing what might come next for the campaign, and proud to be part of a movement raising awareness of the need to end poverty and the importance of the voices of those who have experienced it in doing so.
‘Guarantee our Essentials’ – nobody should go without the essentials
One of the changes we are asking for as part of our policy and advocacy work is a protected minimum amount for Universal Credit to ensure that people do not have to go without the essentials.
For this, we join with the call of the Trussell Trust and Joseph Rowntree Foundation in their ‘Guarantee our Essentials’ campaign.
An Essentials Guarantee would set a legal minimum amount for Universal Credit, with deductions not being allowed to reduce support below that level, and it would be independently reviewed based on the cost of essentials.
Research for the campaign has found that around five in six low-income households receiving Universal Credit are currently going without essentials, including food, clothes, gas and electricity. We believe that this is unacceptable, as do the majority of the public, with 72% of people supporting the call for an Essentials Guarantee, and only 8% opposing it.
Every day in our work we meet people who are unable to meet the costs of essentials, and we see the impact of this on their lives.
One person accessing our services said: “I’ve hardly eaten over the weekend and just finished the last few bits of bread yesterday. I’ve barely slept because of the hunger. Thank you so much for the food. Your help means a lot.”
We believe that change is urgently needed.
You can help us call for change by raising awareness of our work advocating for a more just world, or by joining with the campaign for an Essentials Guarantee by contacting your MP asking them to take action.
How an end to the two-child benefit cap would help our diocese
Alongside many other organisations, we continue to urge the Government to scrap the two-child benefit cap, and we were disappointed not to see it removed in the Autumn Budget.
The two-child cap is a key driver of child poverty and removing it would immediately pull 300,000 children out of poverty, as well as reducing the depth of poverty for 700,000 more.
We believe that all children should have access to all that they need for their development and have the opportunity to thrive. Removing the cap is crucial to improving the lives of so many children and families, and no child should be forced to live in poverty.
However, recent research also shows that there are wider economic benefits to lifting the two-child benefit cap, particularly for a number of constituencies in the Diocese of Salford. According to New Economics Foundation, removing the cap would boost economic growth and reduce demand on public services including the NHS, schools and social services.
Their analysis has found that four constituencies in the Diocese of Salford are included in the top ten constituencies in England and Wales in which the local economy is most negatively affected by the two-child cap. These are Bolton, Blackley and Middleton South, Gorton and Denton, and Blackburn, where it is estimated that the local economies will lose out on between around £8-10million each in the next financial year as a result of the cap if it is not lifted.
Therefore, it is clear that there are a great number of benefits to the Government scrapping the two-child benefit cap. Help us shout loudly for change by joining with the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales and writing to your MP.
Huge increase in people rough sleeping in the Diocese of Salford
The Government releases regular updates about the number of people who are rough sleeping, and sadly the most recent figures show that more and more people are having to sleep on the streets.
The most recent release shows that the number of people rough sleeping in our diocese had increased by 80% in June 2024 compared with the same month in 2022, with 419 people sleeping rough over the course of June this year. This is staggering, and we believe it is unacceptable.
This is why the work of our homelessness services is so important, offering a warm welcome and holistic support, and last year, 1,384 people were supported by our team.
It is also why we work to campaign for change, with one of the changes we are calling for being an end to rough sleeping, with every person at risk of rough sleeping being accommodated the same day while homelessness applications are being assessed.
Calling on the Government for funding for homelessness services
As members of Homeless Link, we were pleased to have the opportunity to sign an open letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, ahead of the Autumn Budget, alongside 75 other housing and homelessness organisations.
Many homelessness services find themselves on a constant funding cliff-edge, and the letter called on the Treasury to rollover existing funding, with an uplift for inflation, and to carry out a cross-departmental, systematic review of funding, to ensure that services can continue to serve those most in need.
The letter was featured in the Guardian, who reported that rough sleeping would return to record levels if the funding shortfall is not filled by the Government.
Whilst increased funding for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government was announced by the Chancellor, how the funding will be broken down was not clear, leaving homelessness services in continued uncertainty. Read Homeless Link’s full response to the Budget here.
Changes needed to reduce homelessness for people seeking asylum
One of the changes we are asking for to help refugees and people seeking asylum rebuild their lives with dignity is a 56-day move-on period when someone is moved on from asylum accommodation, which is in line with the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.
At the moment, when someone receives a decision about their claim for asylum, they are required to move out of accommodation in a month or less, significantly increasing their risk of becoming homeless.
Recent research by the Local Government Association is in line with this call for change. In a survey of local authorities in England, almost 90% of respondents said that the cessation of support for people who had received a decision about their asylum claim had led to a rise in homelessness presentations in their local authority, with over 60% of respondents saying it had led to a rise in street homelessness.
Therefore, it is clear that changes to the system are needed in order to prevent more people becoming homeless, and a longer period of time to engage with support and consider options for housing would play a key part in this.