Caritas calls on MPs to tackle the cost-of-living crisis

Caritas East Anglia is asking members of the Catholic community to write to their MP about the impact of the cost-of-living crisis.

Caritas East Anglia as a member of the Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN), the social action agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. It supports CSAN’s call upon the Catholic community in East Anglia to write to their MP to amplify CSAN’s asks of the government, revised in the light of the Autumn Statement, to describe the reality of poverty in their community and to share the good news of what the Catholic community is doing to meet this urgent need. 

An official CSAN statement gave a reminder that “on Thursday 17 November the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, presented his Autumn Statement to Parliament. This came just under two months after the government’s disastrous mini budget on 23 September, which caused market turmoil with a plan to redistribute wealth to the already wealthy at a time when many were being dragged into poverty by a cost-of-living crisis.”

CSAN described the Autumn Statement as “more responsible and measured, with a fairer approach to redistribution” and it welcomed the upgrading of benefits in line with inflation. However, it asked the Government to make this upgrade immediately, rather than waiting until next April as announced.  

It was also disappointed that no consideration was given to the removal of the two-child cap on universal credit payments. It referred to a report from the Trussell Trust which revealed that 1300 foodbanks across the UK had given out 1.3 million emergency food parcels between April 1 and September 30 this year, an increase of 50% on pre-pandemic levels.  

More information on the CSAN Cost-of-Living campaign, including an invitation to write to your local MP, can be found here: www.csan.org.uk/cost-of-living-crisis/

Image from Pixabay.

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