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Rahela Khan and Jayne Gosnall hold a board with "Dignity means...." on it.

100 people from across the UK gathered in Leeds for the 2023 Dignity For All event.

It was a unique new gathering, bringing together a vast range of people, groups and organisations who want to see an end to poverty in the UK, and who want to find ways to rebuild the dignity of people and communities.

Dignity For All: what took place

The event included workshops, presentations, stalls, discussion groups, panels and lots of new introductions and conversations.

It’s impossible to capture everything, but these photos will give you an idea of what happened, and this blog aims also to give you a flavour of what was said – and some ideas for what to do next.

Dignity For All: in pictures

A church building full of people sitting round tables, at the Dignity For All conference in Leeds in June 2023
Rahela Khan and Jayne Gosnall hold a board with "Dignity means...." on it.
Lynn from All The Small Things CIC speaks at the Dignity For All conference in Leeds in June 2023
Rahela Khan (left) and Mary Passeri speak about dignity and food, at the Lynn from All The Small Things CIC speaks at the Dignity For All conference in Leeds in June 2023
Dylan Eastwood and Tracey Herrington on stage at the Dignity For All conference in Leeds in June 2023
Joanne Roy from Heaton Moor United Church, speaking at the Dignity For All conference in Leeds in June 2023

During the day, people were asked to write what dignity means to them. Some answers are shown below:

A collage of pictures of people holding A3 sheets of paper, saying what dignity means to them. Answers include respect, being listened to, having my voice heard and my opinions respected, choice and feeling valued for being yourself

Dignity For All: what people said

“Power isn’t just a noun. It’s something we can generate… and not in ways that are overtly angry, but in ways that seek to build a community, in ways that are less ‘them and us’, and more ‘us collectively’.”
Andrew Grinnell
Poverty Truth Network
“Poverty is not inevitable. It is man-made. We have the wealth to end it, we have the expertise – it’s a matter of political will.”
Wayne Green
Speaking Truth To Power panel
“We recognise that it’s our own experience and expertise that can influence change. We’ve got self-belief, but we need to ensure that self-belief stays, despite the difficulties we face on a daily basis. We know that things can change. We know that people will stay committed."
Tracey Herrington
Thrive Teesside
“Do not come into communities because you have money to spend and intend to ‘do this’. Instead, come and listen.”
Mary Brennan
Leeds Poverty Truth Commission
"Do not assume, because I am ‘the voice of lived experience’ that I do not also have a whole multitude of experiences.”
Brian Scott
Poverty Truth Scotland
“I think that services and systems need to be informed by lived experience of those of us who are on the receiving end of those, because the people developing them now have no clue – they’ve never had to receive a benefit, never had to use any of the services, and they’ve just shaped them as they think will work, without the thought to those people who are actually going to be using them.”
Tracy Knight
Speaking Truth To Power, and Expert Citizens

Dignity For All: who was there?

The conference was organised jointly by the APLE Collective, Church Action on Poverty, and the Joint Public Issues Team. 

People from a wide range of groups, churches and organisations, including Christians Against Poverty, the Poverty Truth NetworkSelf-Reliant Groups, the Trussell Trust and many more.

Dignity For All: what next?

One of the most pleasing outcomes on the day was the overwhelming consensus that this should not be a one-off event. 

Speaker after speaker spoke of the need to build on this moment, to harness our collective expertise, insight and desire, to press for a faster end to poverty in the UK.

Various ideas are being discussed already, and attention is already turning to Challenge Poverty Week in October, another great chance to raise our voices together.

You can find out more about how to get involved at the links below. 

SPARK newsletter autumn 2022

A new partnership to support communities

Letter to the Prime Minister: more cost of living support is urgently needed

Church Action on Poverty 40th Anniversary Pilgrimage and Conference in Sheffield

Cost of living crisis: is compassion enough?

Politics, self and drama in our responses to scripture

Dignity, Agency, Power: review by John Vincent

Monica: Why I keep standing up and speaking up

We & 55 others say: bridge the gap

What I found when I visited one of Birmingham’s Local Pantries

Stop press! A big step towards better media reporting of poverty

Stef: What dignity, agency & power mean to me

A call to UK churches: forge new partnerships and make change happen

Baking, walking, listening, giving – how you’re all marking our 40th

A radical idea that mobilised the UK’s churches

‘To restore one’s soul’

When people-power won the day against loan sharks

Wayne’s story: Why I (and you) must refuse to be invisible

Dignity, Agency, Power – new anthology launched today

How music is once more bringing people together in Sheffield

Church at the Edge: Young, woke and Christian

“When do we riot?” The impact of the cost of living crisis

Invisible Divides

The compassion in these neighbourhood pantries is fantastic!

Making the Economy work for Everyone

SPARK newsletter summer 2022

Volunteers needed!

An image of a text poster

Urgent: Ask your church to display this poster on Sunday

An aerial view of Reading, with two group photos overlaid. One shows a group of volunteers in a line; the other shows four people around a table smiling.

The town of 250,000 that revolutionised its food system

A toddler in a pushchair holds a box of rice, at a Your Local Pantry

Your Local Pantry began in one neighbourhood but now brings communities together across the UK. How did it grow so far and fast?

A toddler in a pushchair holds a box of rice, at a Your Local Pantry

For Kirsty in the Midlands, it’s a fantastic place to meet people and save a little money.

For Sarah, who volunteers in Cardiff, it has become a second home, a place of friendship, fun and food.

For Tam in Edinburgh, it has brought friendship and freedom – membership has freed up money for him to buy his family presents on special occasions. 

Across the UK, more than 90,000 people have now enjoyed the wide-ranging benefits of Your Local Pantry membership. The first Pantry has just turned ten years old, and this week, in Kent, the 100th Pantry opened.

But how did the network grow so far and so fast? This blog looks at the story so far, and shares some learnings and lessons that could help your own work. 

Particularly, if you are active in your church, it aims to show how a Your Local Pantry could help your church to bring people together around food in a dignified and hope-filled way. 

A volunteer in a Your Local Pantry hoody chats to a member. They are sitting beside a coffee table, the volunteer with her back to the camera, the member facing it.
Pantries offer so much more than food - including community, friendship and support

As a starting point, here’s a quick overview of what Pantries are, with contributions from around the UK:

So Much More: The Pantry story

We have just launched So Much More, our new report looking at the impact Pantries are having across the UK. It made for positive reading. 

Pantry members now save £21 on groceries, each time they use the Pantry, meaning regular members can save more than £1,000 a year.

But as the title says, Pantries are doing so much more than helping members save money.

  • They are bringing people together around food.
  • They are strengthening community cohesion.
  • They are reducing isolation and improving physical and mental health.
  • They are creating opportunities and hope, and loosening the grip of poverty in people’s lives.

Here are just three of the many uplifting comments from Pantry members quoted in the report:

I was able to save up to buy a bike for my son so he can get to college. I am saving towards us having a short family holiday this year, which we've never had before.

————    ————

Thanks to the Pantry I have an advocate to help me manage my debts

————    ————

It has been great to see my autistic son’s mental health improve in coming here. He doesn’t usually want contact with anyone, but he has taken to some of the volunteers really well – even walking round holding their hands

————    ————

Pantries are a remarkable nationwide success story, but the idea began very modestly, in just one neighbourhood, in one town, in the north west of England. It began as a small seedling that has grown and blossomed and spread, carried all over the UK on the winds of kindness and community.

A posed line-up of 8 people in front of a gazebo and Your Local Pantry signs
Communities do so much more when they work together. This event in Stockport in May 2023 marked the 10th anniversary of the first Pantry.

Anna Jones remembers the early days well.

She was working for Stockport Homes, and many residents were in the midst of crisis. The controversial ‘bedroom tax’ was forcing people to move or be penalised, and there were not enough smaller homes available.

At the same time, the food redistribution charity FareShare was doing some deliveries to temporary housing nearby, leading to the spark of an idea.

“We noticed a real increase in food bank use at that time, and Stockport Homes was really worried how residents would make ends meet. We started looking into different food schemes.

“There were lots of different ideas – free food distribution, or a food hall serving meals for instance – but we decided the most impactful thing would be to do a volunteer-led community food store, where people contributed towards it.”

So Much More: a seed that has grown

That store opened in May 2013 as Penny Lane Pantry, the first Your Local Pantry in the country

Anna says: “The first challenge was to try to get the community behind it, in Lancashire Hill [a group of blocks of flats in north Stockport]. The community food store was a great idea. There was some initial wariness, but we asked residents to choose the name in a competition, and someone came up with the name Penny Lane Pantry.

“We really wanted to do something that had a big impact with residents and gave people ownership of the project, and the benefit of volunteering experience and opportunities.

“It had a real focus on bringing the community together. It’s quite a self-contained area of 900 flats, and we wanted it to be an inclusive environment.”

One of the first Pantries, in Stockport. The network has grown so much more than anyone expected.

After Penny Lane, Stockport Homes opened further Your Local Pantries around the town: in Brinnington, Bridgehall, Mottram Street, and Woodley. And then, in 2017, Pantries went national.

Dave Nicholson is now on the board of Skylight, the charity that sits under Stockport Homes, but back then was working for Church Action on Poverty, tasked with finding community initiatives that mitigated against the ‘poverty premium’ – the unjust pricing structures that makes life more expensive for people on low incomes.

He was looking at the “five Fs” (food, finance, fuel, furniture and white goods, and funerals), and was looking for initiatives that could be scaled up and developed more widely.

One evening, he was chatting to a friend in a pub, The Beer House in Chorlton in Manchester, when he hit a stroke of luck: that friend also happened to know Anna, and introduced them on the spot.

Dave went to visit the first Pantries, and was immediately impressed, and the national journey had begun.

A Pantry member in a pink top takes her groceries to the counter.

So Much More than a handout

“What I really liked was the potential and how things were developing and could further develop,” Dave recalls. “I started spending a lot of time with them and with similar initiatives. 

“I was impressed that it was a member-based approach, so there was a much greater degree of agency for the people involved. It’s not just charity and handouts, which is what food banks tend to be. Also, it had potential to be more sustainable in terms of food and easing the poverty premium.

“I thought, right from the beginning, it was like people reinventing the Coop, emulating what the mill workers in Rochdale had done in 1844 – coming together and setting up their own systems.

“Church Action on Poverty started looking at the model and got some people to help, and then in 2017 we launched the Your Local Pantry network as a franchise model.

“I always thought it might take off in Greater Manchester, but I did not give much thought to anything beyond that. It’s incredible how it has grown.”

A woman takes a bag of salad from a shelf, while chatting to a volunteer.
Pantries offer so much more variety than many people realise

So Much More to be proud of

Today, Anna too says she feels a real sense of achievement in the way the first Pantries fostered a community togetherness, and at the way it has grown further than anyone could have imagined. 

“Each of them has a very different personality and audience,” she says.

“The number of people who have joined, is quite astonishing – how it has grown! Initially, we thought it would help people save money, but it has done a lot more than that. 

“Pantries have always charged, because we knew we had to be self-sustaining, and we wanted it to be somewhere without stigma associated. People knew they were paying their way, and we made it clear that money was going back into the Pantry.

“It’s incredible how it has grown from that first Pantry. I still keep in touch with Fiona, who also worked on the Pantries, and we say when we’ve seen where the latest Pantry is.

“We are still very invested in it and feel overjoyed by it. It’s a nice legacy to look back on. From small, humble beginnings and a small impact with 100 members, it is still supporting people.”

That figure, the number of people who have enjoyed the fruits of Pantry membership has risen rapidly from that initial 100. 

Today, more than 33,000 people are benefiting, and over the past ten years the total is more than 90,000. More and more communities have seen what Pantries can do for their neighbourhoods – and what neighbourhoods can do for each other. 

A volunteer lifts a crate of bread out of a car boot.

So Much More: a call to the country

Communities have shown us that there is so much more they can do when they come together, and when they are entrusted with resources and support.

Yet, at the same time, we know they cannot do everything on their own. Pantries operate within a difficult wider context, and they are sometimes hindered rather than helped by systems beyond their control.

In our So Much More report, many members, volunteers and Pantry tell of the acute damage being wrought by soaring living costs. 

Many Pantries are also now having to spend significant sums on food, topping up their stocks, as the FareShare distribution network struggles to meet soaring need. 

This should be a wake-up call to the whole country, and one that rings loudly at Westminster above all. 

Community organisations have long warned that charity is not the long-term answer to food insecurity. It will take so much more than that. Government must now step up. Everyone should have access to good food, and that means all incomes need to keep pace with rising living costs, so people are not swept deeper into poverty.

A volunteer lifts potatoes from a sack. Only his hands are shown, his face is off-camera.
Pantry members say they cherish being able to access so much more fresh food

Today, there are Pantries in all four nations of the UK, from Edinburgh to Ebbw Vale, Portadown to Portsmouth. There are particular clusters in Merseyside, the West Midlands, Edinburgh and Greater London, and smaller clusters in South Wales and Portsmouth.

About half of Pantries are church-based, across several denominations. Others are hosted by community centres, charities, local councils or independent local organsiations.

And there is so much more growth still to come… We expect today’s 100 Pantries to be joined by another 125 by the end of 2025, thanks to a partnership with Coop across the UK.

The network has spread, the membership has grown rapidly, but the day to day good that Pantries do has remained a steady constant. 

And what do Pantries do?…

Pantries bring people together around food.

Pantries create the physical space for local people to meet, and forge new relationships, swapping recipes, ideas, stories and kindness.

Pantries soften the impact of high living costs, reducing shopping bills and giving people some much-needed financial wriggle room.

Pantries help communities and groups of friends to create breathing space together, to pause and chat and think, to lighten the load together and to share ideas that can start making change happen.

Pantries do all this and more. Because, while people can do wonderful things alone, when we come together, blend, complement and bring out each other’s strengths, the possibilities are even greater.

 

So Much More: over to you...

Could you start a Pantry in your church or community? Here we provide some information about how to get started.

Your Local Pantry is a network built on the values of dignity, choice and hope. Pantries bring people together around food, leading to people avoiding food poverty, making large savings on their grocery bills, and strengthening community. 

Setting up a Pantry is relatively low-cost if you have a venue, volunteers and a good supply of food. Pantries can cover most of their operating costs from weekly membership fees.

Our team have experience in helping to set up and support 100 Pantries around the UK. We have a tried and tested plan and a positive approach centred on dignity, choice and hope.

You can find out so much more about the benefits of Pantry membership, and enquire about setting one up, by clicking the logo below.

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Volunteers needed!

An image of a text poster

Urgent: Ask your church to display this poster on Sunday

An aerial view of Reading, with two group photos overlaid. One shows a group of volunteers in a line; the other shows four people around a table smiling.

The town of 250,000 that revolutionised its food system

Two women stitch a craft creation, one looking at her work, the other towards the camera

We hear of remarkable progress among a small group on Merseyside

We all need a fresh start sometimes. A new idea, or a new opportunity. New friendships perhaps or a new routine. Maybe just fresh impetus and new hope.

A group of women in Bootle, near Liverpool, have been enjoying all of that newness, and more, since becoming involved in the Self Reliant Group movement.

The women became involved only in late 2022, but are already reporting greater positivity, new friendships and new excitement about what lies ahead. 

The pictures in this blog show some of the creative group members at work in Bootle. Members say the Self-Reliant Group has helped them greatly.

How Self-Reliant Groups work

Self-Reliant Groups bring people together. Members support each other and meet regularly, share skills, learn together, and typically save small amounts together each week, to explore new ideas and opportunities. Groups are independent and make their own decisions, so don’t have to tick anyone else’s boxes.

Church Action on Poverty has supported the expansion of groups across North West England, and was introduced to the group in Bootle through local community project, St Leonard’s, which had set up a women’s space in a local shopping area.

Jo Seddon, who runs the group, says: “It feels like they’ve flown. I do think the sessions we had kick-started a different train of thought. There’s a new confidence, a new self-belief. People are saying ‘You know what?… we can do it!’”

Self-Reliant Groups: a journey in Bootle

St Leonard’s had set up a women’s space in a local shopping area, and people were introduced via other local projects or through word of mouth. Bootle is an area with many difficulties: a lack of job opportunities, severe under-investment, challenges around health and education, and significant poverty. But as everywhere, there is community pride, tenacity, and a determination to make things better.

Jo says: “We set up a craft hub and had a sewing tutor, and we ended up having a fabulous group of people who were interested. We were then introduced to Joyce and Felicity from Church Action on Poverty, and it has been amazing.

“It has been a small group (three women and one man) but we have had some really nice sessions, and it has opened up people’s thinking about what they are all capable of. It has shown what talents people have and has helped improve their own sense of value.”

Two of the women had been lacking confidence and struggling with anxiety, and one was also grieving following a family bereavement when the group began.

Self-Reliant Groups: the impact for members

Jo said: “One of the women, Ann, has had some difficult issues but she makes amazing things and has started helping the tutor and she is going from strength to strength and has really benefited from Joyce and Felicity’s sessions.

“Another of the women, Claire, makes wonderful blankets. She has health difficulties and was feeling down, but what has come out of the sessions is belief. People started feeling they could make stuff for our shop at St Leonard’s, but we said to go beyond that – see what they could do independently of us. So now they have hired tables at craft fairs for this autumn and Christmas at an old church in Waterloo near where they live, and they will be selling things they have made.

“People have become friends. There’s another woman, Deirdre, who makes bags, and people are becoming friends and sharing skills. I cannot believe it’s the same people who I knew before. It’s just amazing seeing them looking ahead and planning things and talking about products they are going to make.

 “I’ve seen people walking through our doors anxious and not knowing anybody, and where we are now is lovely to see. Joyce and Felicity were so lovely. I have been working in charity for 40 years, and I know what it means to talk about independence. But these sessions have really brought it home for the people involved.”

Above: one of the group members works on her next item. Below: craft wreaths created by the group members already

What Church Action on Poverty did

Joyce and Felicity had spent several mornings with the group, talking through the possibility that some of them could form a group, who would meet regularly to support each other, learn to share their skills and learn from each other, and who would collect a small amount of money so that eventually they might launch a small enterprise or business.

When they began, the idea such an enterprise would have seemed far-fetched and something of a pipe dream but today, less than six months on, it is already a reality.

The group initially met at Claire’s house because of her health, and as it was hard for her to get out but they soon involved others. Ann had been inspired by and learned quilting from her late mother and was a fantastic quilter. Deirdre made bags, and was a talented sewer. They pooled their talents and shared their knowledge. The answer to the question “What can we do?” was that they could make things. And they did.

The group organised themselves and supported each other. The table rental of around £15 a session came from the funds they had collected, and the new friends are all making things for the fairs. A local woodworker and carpenter, John, who makes things but has had no outlet to sell them, has also joined the group and is joining in the preparations and production.

What the group has accomplished already is a triumph – but what if the fairs go well, that could be the icing on the cake.

  • The people mentioned in this article have made incredible progress, but do not yet want to be named widely. Jo is using her real name, but the other names have been changed.
  • To learn more about Self-Reliant Groups, watch the short video below.

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Volunteers needed!

An image of a text poster

Urgent: Ask your church to display this poster on Sunday

An aerial view of Reading, with two group photos overlaid. One shows a group of volunteers in a line; the other shows four people around a table smiling.

The town of 250,000 that revolutionised its food system

Mary Passeri stands smiling in front of some of her paintings

Change comes, not from looking and seeing - but from taking action. And Mary has certainly done lots of that.

Mary Passeri stands smiling in front of some of her paintings
Mary Passeri, at her art studio in York. Photo by David Harrison.

Are you ready?…

In the past eight years, Mary has spent time:

  • tackling social isolation
  • cooking and sharing food
  • improving coordination between food banks
  • helping journalists improve media coverage of poverty
  • speaking up about injustice
  • highlighting ways to improve support for carers
  • working to make her own city better
  • helping politicians understand what went wrong with food systems during the pandemic
  • listening widely to people on low incomes
  • sharing her own wisdom and first-hand insights
  • talking to people in poverty, to politicians, to journalists, to researchers, to church leaders and to an Archbishop
  • working with others to carry on addressing injustice

Briefly, among all of that, she paused for a week of vital and rewarding rest and reflection with fellow activists on the Scottish island of Iona… and came back reenergised more than ever.

People at the 2022 pilgrimage gathering on Iona.

Mary: a sense of peace and purpose

“When I was in Iona, I just got the feeling I was around really decent human beings.

“It can be really lonely and isolating to speak up on issues, you can feel like you’re yapping away. Being on Iona, and meeting people face to face, sharing a laugh together and learning from each other’s ideas and mistakes, was amazing.

“I came back and it had quite a lasting effect on me. For me, it brought peace and purpose. I felt at ease and thought: ‘You know what… maybe we can do something more’.”

Mary: speaking up matters

Mary Passeri & Sydnie Corley sit in a small radio studio, speaking into microphones.
Mary (left) and friend Sydnie Corley, speaking up on BBC 5 Live, about the solutions to poverty.

Mary is now part of the national Speaking Truth To Power programme, in partnership with Church Action on Poverty, working with others around the UK on a national panel to address big issues.

“I wanted to get into the national stuff with Church Action on Poverty because it had a real focus but was still flexible. It didn’t over-promise, but has real targets.

“I took part in the Food Experiences During Covid-19 project, and I loved that. I found it really interesting, and because it was so wide, I was talking to people in Cornwall and Newcastle and hearing people encountering very similar issues in all these different places.

“Having done that, I then wanted to do the Speaking Truth To Power work as well. I saw, more than ever, the need for people to be heard. It’s too easy to discount voices. I realise I have done it myself, and not always listened to everyone equally, and sometimes have to force myself to listen better, but it’s important.

Mary: speak up in the church

A shot of people around a large table, including the Archbishop of York
Mary (back right in the picture below) was one of the people who took part in the roundtable on tackling poverty, with the Archbishop of York in 2022.
A posed group shot on the steps of Bishopthorpe Palace, of event attendees

“Voices of people in poverty need to reach people in power. I am not a church person, and don’t like a lot of churches, but the churches have a wide network and a nationwide voice, and I like where churches have put their head above the parapet and said things that need to be said. I took part in a regional roundtable event with the Archbishop of York last year, and it was excellent, as people were heard.

“My health and my care demands mean I cannot do full-time employed work, or as much work as I used to – but I can do this, and I feel if you can contribute, you should. Church Action on Poverty is about pragmatic responses. It’s looking to resolve things, not just looking and seeing them. It supports people to speak up and articulate what you are feeling.

“When I was working professionally, I was used to running departments and being heard, but after I became ill, after my strokes, I lost all confidence. The sense of being able to use my voice, and being heard, was gone – but through being part of this work with Church Action on Poverty, I will not let that happen again.

“Every time I put my head above the parapet, I got shot down – but now I have confidence again. I have gained a lot by being part of this work, raising awareness of poverty and what it does.

Mary: speak up with young people

“There are issues I hope we can highlight through the Speaking Truth To Power work. My generation is largely okay, but a lot needs to be done to support people with caring responsibilities. Caring allowance is not enough and there is not enough support.

“And we also need to do more to create opportunities for young people. We are at risk of alienating our young people and we need to create more opportunities. Sometimes around here I see what I call “30-year-old teenagers” – people who have not been supported and who have been denied opportunities when they were younger that could make a difference.

“I also think that everything that comes through Parliament now is about scapegoating. They talk about getting people into work, but don’t recognise that some people cannot. And everything carries a warning: “Do this…. Or else.” We need to engage people.

Mary: speak up creatively

Sydnie Corley and Mary Passeri with some of their art, including pictures, decorated tote bags and wall decorations
Above and below: Mary (right) and Sydnie, at their old art studio and food hub in York. The friends are both talented artists and passionate social justice activists. Photos by David Harrison.
York artists Sydnie Corley and Mary Passeri, who run the York Food Justice Alliance at SPARK in Piccadilly, York. Picture by David Harrison.

Mary’s recent years of activism began around 2015 really, through a café called Chill In The Community, near her home in Acomb in west York.

“We had a table with surplus supermarket food that people could take, and the idea was that the free groceries might help people to afford to have a coffee and to be in the company of other people, so it was tackling social isolation – and we didn’t let people go without, so it was very welcoming.

“After that, I started working with the York “Food Not Bombs” group, cooking and delivering food, supporting people who were homeless. Soon after that, York Food Poverty Alliance was set up, and I got really involved in that, as it meant all the York food banks started talking to each other more. We were also running a food unit in the city centre, where people could access food without stigma.

“After a while, it became York Food Justice Alliance, and I became co-chair with Sydney, and we said if it was about justice, then we needed to have an activist element, rather than just discussing how to hand out food. That didn’t sit well with everyone, but we felt it had to happen.”

Mary: speak up in the media

Gavin Aitchison, Martin Green, Sydnie Corley and Mary Passeri at an NUJ meeting in London
Mary Passeri, right, during an event in London to discuss ethical media reporting of poverty

In 2018/19, Mary took part in a York Community Reporters project, where several women made smartphone videos, explaining and showing the realities of food poverty locally. 

The film was shown at a public event in York, and soon afterwards Mary and Sydnie featured on the national BBC 6 O’Clock News, Radio 5 Live and on BBC Radio York, talking about hunger in the city, and the particular challenges caused by the low level of carers’ allowance.

She also worked with the NUJ, journalists and other campaign groups, to help produce new guidelines for reporting on poverty.

Most recently, Mary has used her artistic skills to lead creative sessions among the Speaking Truth To Power groups, encouraging people to visually capture the nature of poverty and solutions. 

Mary Passeri sitting at a table, being filmed by a TV camera crew.
Mary Passeri is interviewed for BBC News in 2020.

Mary says: “I like working with Church Action on Poverty, because everything is transparent. They never make promises they can’t keep, or say we’ll definitely achieve what we want to – they say how they will take things forward, and that they will try to achieve our aims, which is all we can keep doing.”

Speaking Truth To Power

Mary is part of the Speaking Truth To Power national panel. You can learn more about two more of the participants below, and look out for more insights over the coming months.

 

SPARK newsletter autumn 2022

A new partnership to support communities

Letter to the Prime Minister: more cost of living support is urgently needed

Church Action on Poverty 40th Anniversary Pilgrimage and Conference in Sheffield

Cost of living crisis: is compassion enough?

Politics, self and drama in our responses to scripture

Dignity, Agency, Power: review by John Vincent

Monica: Why I keep standing up and speaking up

We & 55 others say: bridge the gap

What I found when I visited one of Birmingham’s Local Pantries

Stop press! A big step towards better media reporting of poverty

Stef: What dignity, agency & power mean to me

A call to UK churches: forge new partnerships and make change happen

Baking, walking, listening, giving – how you’re all marking our 40th

A radical idea that mobilised the UK’s churches

‘To restore one’s soul’

When people-power won the day against loan sharks

Wayne’s story: Why I (and you) must refuse to be invisible

Dignity, Agency, Power – new anthology launched today

How music is once more bringing people together in Sheffield

Church at the Edge: Young, woke and Christian

“When do we riot?” The impact of the cost of living crisis

Invisible Divides

The compassion in these neighbourhood pantries is fantastic!

Making the Economy work for Everyone

SPARK newsletter summer 2022

Volunteers needed!

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Urgent: Ask your church to display this poster on Sunday

An aerial view of Reading, with two group photos overlaid. One shows a group of volunteers in a line; the other shows four people around a table smiling.

The town of 250,000 that revolutionised its food system

Gemma Athanasius-Coleman

A chance conversation at just the right time set Gemma Athanasius-Coleman on the road to social justice activism.

Gemma Athanasius-Coleman

She was volunteering at Newquay Orchard, when one of the team mentioned a new project looking at food experiences during the pandemic.

Gemma joined, gained a broader and deeper understanding of the systemic causes of poverty, and is now vocal and active in campaigning for a better, more just society.

Gemma: Every kind of poverty is linked

“I lived near Newquay Orchard and was volunteering there at the time,” says Gemma. “I had come out of full-time work to care for my daughter, and was telling Andrew at the Orchard about having become a single parent and struggling financially. So sent me an email about the Food Experiences project and it sounded right up my street.

“I had been a little involved before in some environmental stuff, and had been toying with studying around the environment.

“The Orchard got me into sustainability and social justice, and then the Food Experiences project really opened my eyes to how a lot of issues are interlinked.

“Every kind of poverty is linked and every kind of injustice is linked. That work got me interested in all those links, and what can be done to change things.

“Learning is a form of activism for me. It’s not the type that involves marching to Parliament with a placard. For me, studying and learning and trying to apply that knowledge is my activism.”

Gemma: A nationwide view of poverty

Gemma grew up in Bradford, and went to university in Leeds, then moved to Cornwall in 2010 – so she has direct insight into the varying challenges facing communities in the north and south of England, and in urban and rural areas. 

She also recently completed a Masters in Sustainable Development, gaining a profound understanding of the way social injustices past and present connect.

Gemma Athanasius-Coleman
Gemma, centre, during a Food For Change event

“Everything is so different here. Up north, rent was a lot cheaper, and food availability is a lot easier in cities than it is here. I didn’t have a car, so experiencing rural isolation was a shock to the system at first.

“Before, I had a 24-hour Asda five minutes from where I lived, but here everything is further away and shuts earlier. A lot of areas here are very rural, and that has its own costs and challenges (although online shopping has made that easier).

“Bus and train journeys are expensive and slow. My nearest city is Truro, which would be a 40 minutes away by car, but which takes 90 minutes by bus.

“There is a lot of tourism here, and a lot of talk about second home owners taking properties and pushing the market up. Rents are very high. I’m in social housing, but private rents are very high and housing insecurity is a big issue.

Cornwall is famed for its coastal beauty, but has a lot of hidden poverty

Gemma: I don't think everybody speaks up enough

“To an outsider, Newquay just looks amazing. You come on holiday and it is just stunning. It is like the California of England. A lot of people move here because it is like this is the dream.

“The reality when you get here is there is a lot of deprivation. There is not enough work, it is mostly seasonal, and minimum wage, and the cost of living is really high. 

“Here has more community than where I grew up, because it is a smaller population. You can feel very isolated, but the community pulls together and it really did pull together in lockdown.

“I campaign because I think I quite enjoy being a voice for people, if that makes sense. I don’t think everybody speaks up enough about what goes on. I just feel like if I can highlight that and something can change, then that would be my ultimate goal, really. Just make a difference in my local area. 

“I would say I am like 80% activist and campaigner. I find it hard, knowing there are injustices and doing nothing about it. 

“It is all about fairness and equality. Everyone has a right to live a certain standard of living. There shouldn’t be such a gap between rich and poor.

“At the moment, I’m working alongside Cornwall Independent Poverty Forum on a project looking at food and schools, and what difference it makes to children to have breakfast every day and I’m hoping to start my own Social Enterprise tackling these systemic issues.

“I’m also part of the Speaking Truth To Power project, which should build confidence in speaking up about issues. At times I feel so nervous saying I have been in poverty, but I want to break that stigma and encourage people to tell stories because that’s how things change.

Gemma Athanasius-Coleman
Gemma (pictured right with her children), has taken part in numerous events to raise understanding and press for change

Gemma: What I want to change...

Gemma speaking during Challenge Poverty Week 2022 in Cornwall

“There are a couple of issues I really want to address…

“I had a real bee in my bonnet when I did my masters and took out a loan to cover the fees. I rang the benefits people to tell them, and they stopped my income support of £45 a week. It was penalising me for doing something. The system penalises single parents for studying and I would love that to change.

“I wrote a report on it: ‘Reducing UK poverty by addressing the barriers preventing female single parent carers from entering higher education.’

“The other issue is around carers’ allowance. I can earn up to £132 a week, and receive a carers’ allowance of £70 a week. But if I go to, say, £160 a week in earnings then I lose the whole carers’ allowance. 

“So if I’m earning more than £132, but less than £200, I lose out. If I was Prime Minister, the first thing I would do is knock that on the head. I am a single person who’s given the choice of staying on a low income, or being penalised when trying to get to a higher income. I do not understand how they do not encourage people to learn. It’s not good enough at all.”

Gemma: How to be a force for change

“There was a time when I felt I needed to get into politics because they seem to be the people pulling the strings.

“But in the end, I looked into studying again, and got my masters degree. That work focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and it was really interesting to see how all those goals are linked and to understand the history of how everything works, and of colonialism, and how it all links together – and also of ways to change it.

“It is easy to get bogged down by everything, but remember you can do your bit – you can only do what you yourself can do as an individual. You can’t fix every issue – but you can make a difference. I remember to focus and do what I can do.”

Hear from more inspirational campaigners and change-makers

Mary: tackling poverty via radio, art and a newfound resolve

Poems from the Iona Community 2022

SPARK newsletter summer 2023

Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield 2023 AGM

An introduction to Self-Reliant Groups for Churches

How the Pope’s words 10 years ago challenge & changed us

Budget 2023: Speaking Truth To Power reaction

Budget 2023: a precious chance to bridge the rich-poor divide

Books about poverty: some recommendations for World Book Day

Dark Holy Ground – autobiography of a Church Action on Poverty campaigner

Undercurrent book review: “you can’t kick hunger into touch with a beautiful view”

What does it mean to be a church on the margins?

News release: Poor communities hit hardest by church closures, study finds

We need to dig deeper in our response to poverty

Gemma: What I want to change, speaking truth to power

Church Action on Poverty Sunday: St Cuthbert’s Church Event

SPARK newsletter winter 2022-23

Kenny Fields revisited: new hope, amid the tough times

The Pilgrimage on the Margins

Dignity, Agency, Power and human worth

Volunteers needed!

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Urgent: Ask your church to display this poster on Sunday

An aerial view of Reading, with two group photos overlaid. One shows a group of volunteers in a line; the other shows four people around a table smiling.

The town of 250,000 that revolutionised its food system

Myra and Sue in front of the 'Kensington' mural outside the Kensington Fields community centre

We catch up with Sue Robinson, a community champion in Liverpool - and hear of new grounds for optimism...

Last spring, tens of thousands of people heard from people in a Liverpool neighbourood, thanks to a powerful piece of community storytelling.

The Made In Liverpool film was a fantastic collaboration between Kensington Fields Community AssociationThe GuardianFeeding Liverpool and Church Action on Poverty.

If you’ve not seen it, or want to refresh your memory, here it is again:

Community voices

The film looked at issues around community development, local land ownership, food access and voice. 

So far, the film has been watched more than 70,000 times online, and has also been screened at Bolton Film Festival and as part of Challenge Poverty Week.

Now, eight months on, we wanted to catch up with one of the central storytellers, to see what had changed. 

Myra and Sue in front of the 'Kensington' mural outside the Kensington Fields community centre

Meet Sue...

Sue Robinson (on the right in the above photo) runs the community centre where most of the film was shot. 

She says: “The film was absolutely brilliant. Once people knew about it, they were all watching it and asking if there was anything they could do. We had lots of people coming over and wanting to volunteer at the Pantry and we’ve been asking some some people to help with other things.”

Filming during the Made In Liverpool project.

Cost of living: new responses

In recent months, local people have been dragged deeper and deeper into financial difficulty, as the cost of living has risen to perilous levels. Inevitably, the community centre has been doing what it can to keep people afloat.

“Demand for the Pantry now is off the scale,” says Sue.

“We try to keep to 150 members, but it’s hard and we have a waiting list now of about 35, and we’re also handing out a lot of emergency food support. 

“The other new thing we are doing is slow cookery classes. Everyone says the slow cookers are amazing – it’s cheaper than using the oven or microwave, so people can do a meal for much less. So we are doing classes and supplying slow cookers, and as soon as one course ends there are people wanting to join the next one. 

“We are still doing our lunch club as well, and we are doing two days a week as a warm hub, for people to come here and be able to save on turning the heating on at home.

“We always ask people what they want us to do at the centre, and at the moment people all want activities around the cost of living, so we try to meet those needs. We’re still doing work with children in the evenings and holidays as well, and a food element comes into everything now. Everything relates to food and energy.

“It is a strain. I am supposed to work 24 hours a week, but this week, by Wednesday, I have worked 30 hours already. I do it because I love being here and I love the people, but for things to change we need the Government or funders to change.”

Kensington Fields Community Centre in Liverpool. Photo from the Made In Liverpool film.

Where change starts

Bringing about change like that is not easy. But speaking up is a vital beginning. 

Sue and others locally are part of the new Speaking Truth To Power programme, backed by Church Action on Poverty, which will support people with experience of poverty and marginalisation as they campaign for systemic change, social justice and more inclusive, dignified systems.

And already, locally, there are glimmers of hope…

One of the big themes identified in last year’s film was the uncertainty around the community centre’s future. For years, Sue and the team have been asking the council to help them secure the lease on the building, or to secure new premises if they do need to move. 

Now, after much persistence and tenacity, talks are finally taking place. Watch this space.

This outrageous, counter-productive Budget marginalises people with least

A sermon for Church Action on Poverty Sunday

Stories that challenge: Emma’s road to church

Sheffield voices: We need higher incomes and more for young people

Cost of living scandal: 7 truly useful church responses

Stories that challenge: Alan & Ben

7 ways a Your Local Pantry could help YOUR community in 2024

Artist Don: How Leith Pantry has helped ease my depression

Are we set for a landmark legal change on inequality?

SPARK newsletter winter 2023-24

Let’s say what we truly want society to look like – Let’s End Poverty

Charity and church leaders call for urgent action on rising poverty in the UK and around the world

Volunteers needed!

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Urgent: Ask your church to display this poster on Sunday

An aerial view of Reading, with two group photos overlaid. One shows a group of volunteers in a line; the other shows four people around a table smiling.

The town of 250,000 that revolutionised its food system

Stef Benstead

Each year, the Dignity, Agency, Power calendar tells stories of people who bring those values to life. This page features STEF BENSTEAD.

Stef Benstead

In 2019, Stef wrote Second Class Citizens, looking at the shameful way the UK state has treated disabled people, and she has also taken part in Manchester Poverty Truth Commission.

At the recent launch of the Dignity, Agency, Power anthology, Stef told Church Action on Poverty supporters about her work:

Why I wrote Second Class Citizens

“Quite often a lot of the policies and decisions being made are made by people who don’t really have enough information – people who have expertise as professionals but not by experience. They’re often not listening to people with expertise by experience, and the result is a lot of policies are harmful rather than helping.

“The reason I ended up writing Second Class Citizens was that I had a background in disability through my own illness and had gone into research. It was very clear that the Government was causing a lot of harm, but I had a lot of friends from a more conservative evangelical Christian background. A lot of friends talked about poverty and sounded like they cared but they felt welfare reform act was good, and I was sitting there saying no, it’s not, it’s awful!”

Stef cites the example of Universal Credit, where some of the founding principle and ideas were good, but where many problems ensued because policy makers didn’t think about how much people really needed to live on, the effect of switching to monthly payments, the impact on couples being paid jointly, and many other practical scenarios.

My experience of Manchester Poverty Truth Commission

“The Poverty Truth Commission takes a similar approach on a more local level. What a lot of professionals don’t realise until they get into a commission is just how harmful some of their policies are. 

“In the commission, you come together and have repeated conversations, to the point where you have relationships, and it’s really interesting.

“Within organisations, a lot of people really care and want to do right, so they’re really distressed when they hear they’re doing wrong – but they’re willing to change. You need people with experience in the room making decisions, because that’s the only way you get good policy.”

Stef: What dignity means to me

“Dignity is about having enough to live off – so you’re not scrambling for money, constantly wondering whether you can afford to have the heating on, the light on, to eat this food or not.

“It’s also a bit more than that – it’s having enough to participate in society, it’s about being able to have a friend come over and not feel ashamed that your house is cold, or having no milk to offer a cup of tea, or if you have children being able to buy them the latest thing and for them not to be excluded but to enjoy the same things their peers have. 

“It’s being able to help friends and neighbours and have a reciprocity, so at least some of the time you have something to give to someone else. Also it’s about having long term security, and knowing you’ll be okay if something goes wrong. Dignity is partly about having that confidence to look to the future and say actually there are systems that will help me stay on my feet is something goes wrong.”

Stef: What agency means to me

“Agency is that control you have over your life, to be able to direct where it goes and to make choices, so if you apply for a job you’re not just stuck taking the first job no matter how awful it is. Or it’s being able to pick the subjects you do at school, or what school you go to – being able to control where your life goes. 

“What a lot of people face is not having that agency. If you’re on unemployment benefits, you’re always being told how many hours you have to do, what jobs to apply for. There’s no trust on you to make your own life better.”

Stef: What power means to me

“Power, I think, is about having an impact on the world around you. Agency is partly about having impact on your own life, but power is going: ‘actually I can make changes in society as well’. 

“Maybe that means being a governor of a local primary school, it might be in a residents’ association, it might mean being part of political or religious association, or maybe it’s just knowing I’m someone who, if you go to police or social care and say there’s an issue, they’ll take me seriously and involve me in the decision making process.

“We tend to have professionals who make decisions, then people who are affected, and there’s a lack of power. In general, the more money you have the more power you have and that doesn’t generally lead to a country that works for everybody.”

Stef: My hopes are for the Dignity, Agency, Power anthology

“Because I’m from evangelical background, I want to see church groupings reading this, and I would like to see Christians take seriously the command of God that we all pursue justice for the poor and oppressed and to have their hearts moved by the stories.”

Be part of a movement that’s reclaiming dignity, agency and power

The UK doesn’t want demonising rhetoric – it wants to end poverty

Sheffield Civic Breakfast: leaders told about mounting pressures of poverty

Artists perform for change in Manchester

Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield: annual report 2023-24

SPARK newsletter summer 2024

Church on the Margins reports

Church Action on Poverty North East annual report 2022-24

Stories that challenge: Sarah and Rosie’s health

Dreams & Realities: welcome to an incredible exhibition

Building hopes and dreams in Bootle

A silhouette shot of a church, with the setting sun visible through its steeple

How can churches respond to the UK's cost of living scandal?

That’s what many church-goers are still asking. Household bills have soared, incomes have been squeezed, and the inadequacy of the UK’s social security system has been exposed and rightly challenged.  

Many people have been going perilously cold or hungry, and are becoming isolated and destitute. 

In a compassionate, rich country, this should be unthinkable. So, what should churches we do? 

A silhouette shot of a church, with the setting sun visible through its steeple

We have updated this blog for 2023/24, with six ways that your church can respond positively and effectively. These suggestions will go a little way to easing the crisis for people in your community  in the short-term, and/or shortening the crisis for everyone in the medium to long term.

1: Join the national campaign

Almost in ten Brits say more should be done to tackle poverty in the UK – a remarkable level of consensus.

Yet while the public will for action is vast, national political leadership is sorely missing – Politicians keep ignoring the issue of poverty. 

The Let’s End Poverty campaign is bringing together a diverse movement of people and communities who have lived in poverty or witnessed its effects and who all want change. It’s a powerful campaign that can make a big difference in 2024.

Are you a church leader or a church-goer? Sign up to the campaign today, find out more, and discuss how your church could get involved.

2: Listen. Truly listen.

A cartoon drawing of two people chatting at a table

Are you truly hearing from people in poverty in your community? Can you create ways to ensure that open conversations take place. Mistakes are often made (and resources misdirected) when people or organisations assume what is needed, rather than listening to people with lived experience of complex issues. 

Forming real relationships and having meaningful conversations are essential. 

What is your church doing beyond the Sunday services to meet and hear from local people? Perhaps collaborate with other churches, to increase your reach. 

Perhaps you could host a Neighbourhood Voices event, to get started?

3: Repair dignity, hope and choice

InterACT Pantry in Leeds: a green shipping container, with three people outside

The Your Local Pantry network now spans all four UK nations, from Edinburgh to Ebbw Vale, Portadown to Portsmouth. About half of the 100 Pantries are church-based. Bringing people together around food strengthens communities, increases dignity, and eases the impact of high living costs. Pantry members report incredible benefits. It’s a positive outcome for all concerned. 

Could your church set up a Pantry, or team up with an existing one in your area?

4: Sign to guarantee the essentials

A stock image of a yellow pencil

Despite living in one of the world’s richest countries, around 90% of low-income households receiving Universal Credit are having to go without essentials. People are being swept into poverty.

The basic level of Universal Credit should always cover the bare essentials. Trussell Trust is running this petition to push for change. Why not share it with your church leaders and congregation?

5: Know who else can help

A stock image of a white arrow sign

People in acute financial crisis will often need specialist support and advice. No church team can ever know everything – so ensure instead that you know where people can go in your community for expertise. Speak to local organisations like citizens’ advice, your local CVS, your local authority and other charities. Gather contact details and information leaflets, so you can be a useful pointer to people who turn to you. 

6: Connect with grassroots experts

A group of 12 people, in two rows, outside a log cabin

The UK has some fantastic networks of groups led by people with first-hand experience of poverty – people who best understand the causes of poverty, and whose wisdom is crucial to truly tackling it. There may well be active organisations in your region – check out the links below.

7: Build on what has worked - and be there!

Communities rallied in an incredibly positive and proactive way when the pandemic began. Many groups of neighbours set up WhatsApp groups, and perhaps your church found new ways to keep in touch with local people. 

Don’t let that go.

Churches, at their best, are thriving hubs at the heart of their communities – open and inclusive to all believers and everyone else. Churches at their best connect with and support the local area through local collaborations, shared spaces and resources, and genuine community.

Dig deep and reflect on what it means to be a church on the margins.

And now? Over to you...

Parkas, walking boots, and action for change: Sheffield’s urban poverty pilgrimage

Dreamers Who Do: North East event for Church Action on Poverty Sunday 2024

Autumn Statement: Stef & Church Action on Poverty’s response

Act On Poverty – a Lent programme about tackling UK and global poverty

How 11 people spoke truth to power in Sussex

Obituary: Michael Campbell-Johnston SJ

Annual review 2022-23

Ashleigh: “I think we will become known for making a change”

North East churches & community gather to tackle poverty together

There’s huge public desire to end poverty – will politicians now act?

What is Let’s End Poverty – and how can you get involved?

Our partner APLE is looking for new trustees

Nottingham’s first Your Local Pantry opens

SPARK newsletter autumn 2023

Urban Poverty Pilgrimage: Towards a Theological Practice

Carlie in front of an Autism Hope display stand

Carlie tells of her experience of poverty, and the systems that do (or don't) support families with additional needs

Carlie in front of an Autism Hope display stand

What does poverty look like today? What is at stake when the Government talks of cutting benefits? What needs to change in society?

Those were some of the issues raised at the Archbishop of York’s recent roundtable discussion on tackling poverty in Yorkshire, at which I shared my experiences of life in a family with additional needs.

I have come to understand poverty personally, as my son was diagnosed with severe autism at two and couldn’t access day care, so I had to stop working and was living in rented accommodation with two children, on benefits.

Carlie, far left, took part in the recent roundtable discussion on tackling poverty in Yorkshire

Inspired by my experience

What this experience did was inspire me to do set up Autism Hope Sheffield six years ago, through the Parson’s Cross Initiative in the north of the city. Autism Hope is a parent-led support group, with one main goal: to connect other parents who have children with autism spectrum disorder.

The group was born out of a desperate need for connection and understanding, both of me as a parent and of my beautiful son. Isaac was two when he was diagnosed, after showing profound regression at eighteen months.

This began our journey in the world of autism. Seeing your child regress and lose skills they have previously held is incredibly frightening for a parent. My once sociable and happy infant became extremely anxious and lost in his own world, with me unable to reach him.

Group members support each other, but there’s still an isolation and a stigma you can feel. There are parents who can’t work, because they’ve got a child with severe anxiety. They’ve given up their jobs, and they’re living in poverty and with the judgment that goes with that.

This week is Challenge Poverty Week, a chance to speak up about the systems and structures that hold many people back. When we talk about poverty, families with additional needs are often an overlooked group.

I consider myself one of the lucky ones in that the severity of Isaac’s autism meant the diagnosis took less than twelve months. However, those twelve months were incredibly difficult and frightening.

Parents are facing this every day and unfortunately the wait for diagnosis is now years rather than months. These are children who may have regressed like Isaac did or who may have hit milestones in their development such as walking and talking yet struggle dramatically with social skills or have sensory irregularities.

A common factor for some children is their ability to mask in school, yet on arrival home they relax and all their held-in emotions erupt, and their parents are at a loss how to help. This can be a major battle for parents as school may not see any problem, and cannot understand why the parents request help.

So, what needs to change in society, to support children like Isaac and families like mine?

Firstly, many schools could do more to accommodate the adjustments that would help a child’s ability to have a successful mainstream education – such as allowing a child a start time five minutes before or after their classmates, or allowing them to eat in a separate place.

Secondly, more should also be done to support parents to access specialist provision where appropriate, and more investment is needed.

Many parents’ applications are turned down because of the shocking lack of places in schools, or on the basis that the needs of the child cannot be met. If a specialist provision cannot meet the needs of the child, then where will they access the education every child is entitled to?

Thirdly, more support for mental health for children and parents should be a priority. A child shouldn’t have to wait months – sometimes even years – to receive much-needed counselling and therapy. 

Anxiety, depression, and self-harm are common with children with autism and the waiting time is devastating to a parent at their wits’ end, trying to keep their child safe. Parents may have to give up work as they need to be full time carers, and this affects the family’s finances dramatically.

A posed group shot on the steps of Bishopthorpe Palace, of event attendees

More understanding is essential

More understanding is essential – of children who are non-verbal yet who fight magnificently to get their needs met in whichever way they may communicate, of children whose anxiety means they cannot leave their bedroom and self-harm, and of parents trying to function and hold it all together whilst neglecting their own care needs. These are the realities of family lives and without more support and funding, this situation is only going to get worse.

NHS waiting times for assessments also need to be improved dramatically but, in the meantime, there are things that can be done – such as clear signposting to parents what the process for assessment will be, and how to apply for an EHCP (education, health and care plan) if needed.

Financially, more should also be done to support parents to claim carers’ allowance, disability living allowance and other state benefits, and these benefits must be increased, to reflect the financial insecurity and extreme difficulties families face.

That is what is at stake when we talk about poverty and benefits.

Carlie Brough is co-founder of Autism Hope Sheffield, and took part in the Archbishop of York’s recent roundtable discussion on tackling poverty in Yorkshire. A version of this article was also published in The Yorkshire Post on 19th October 2022.

Be part of a movement that’s reclaiming dignity, agency and power

This outrageous, counter-productive Budget marginalises people with least

A sermon for Church Action on Poverty Sunday

Stories that challenge: Emma’s road to church

Sheffield voices: We need higher incomes and more for young people

Cost of living scandal: 7 truly useful church responses

Stories that challenge: Alan & Ben

7 ways a Your Local Pantry could help YOUR community in 2024

Artist Don: How Leith Pantry has helped ease my depression

Are we set for a landmark legal change on inequality?

SPARK newsletter winter 2023-24

Let’s say what we truly want society to look like – Let’s End Poverty

Charity and church leaders call for urgent action on rising poverty in the UK and around the world

The 2023 Budget was a divisive 'us and them' one, our panel members feel.

Members of the Speaking Truth To Power national panel met on Wednesday to watch the 2023 Budget and to discuss what it means.

Afterwards, the panel’s response to the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s statement was, overall, one of disappointment.

Some positives, much upset, and many missing messages

Some announcements were received positively, most notably the extension of free childcare, the removal of the excess charges for people on pre-payment utility meters.

But there was great concern and upset at news that:

  • the unemployment support system will become even more punishing and inflexible
  • the charity sector will have to plug even more gaps in vital public services
  • pension reforms are likely to benefit the already wealthy rather than wider society

Here is a selection of what people said:

“They are reinforcing a political ideology on to poor people. It’s a harsher world, to get you into any form of work at all. I’m over 50 and am on Jobseeker’s Allowance, but I am threatened with sanctions for 11 different conditions. I get one month to find work in my profession, then am told to search for 35 hours a week for any work locally.”

“The assumption behind a lot of the benefit system is that people are lazy or not willing to seek a job, so must be coerced – it is just so unacceptable.”

“I have a disability, and it’s bad enough, but to then have this real scapegoating of people who cannot contribute more is just something else.”

“It’s a bit cheeky to claim that uprating benefits with inflation is a good-enough action when they have repeatedly refused to uprate benefits at all in a number of the last 13 years.”

“There are more disabled people in work because people in work became disabled and stayed in work. That’s not the same as people too sick/disabled to work moving into work.”

“Argh, no, there is no-one for whom sanctions need to be applied more harshly”…. “Sanctions mean cruelty as a general rule…and cost more to administer than they save.”

“The childcare change is good news. Childcare costs are such a barrier to going back to work, and even when working you can end up out of pocket. It’s women who are predominantly penalised – and the people making the changes are men, who do not understand the issue as well.”

“It still overall feels like an ‘us and them’ budget. The people who are poor are clearly seen as ‘them’ by the politicians.”

“Nothing was said about housing issues, about the rental sector, or young people.”

There was a lot of anger and concern that disabled people would be treated even worse than at present, with renewed pressure to force people who are unable to work to do so, while removing vital support systems.

Panel member Stef Benstead, whose book Second Class Citizens forensically charts successive Government’s mistreatment of disabled people, spoke about her own experiences and said she was anxious that disabled people could face further cuts to support, and more assessments that do not recognise the reality of people’s lives and situations.

Speaking Truth To Power

We had wanted the Chancellor to seize the moment to tackle the unjust systems that hold people and communities back, to ensure that incomes keep pace with soaring living costs, and to invest in the vital public systems that we all require.

The group wanted a Budget driven by a desire to create a just society, which truly listens to and heeds people in poverty and on the margins, and which works to support people being swept into deepest difficulty. 

More than 60% of people think the Government should act to reduce income inequality, and an overwhelming majority see the prospect of widening inequality as problematic.

Key messages the Speaking Truth To Power panellists had hoped to see in the Budget included: 

  • Extending support on energy bills, and doing more to prevent the crisis from recurring
  • Making childcare more accessible and affordable, to support low-income parents
  • Creating opportunities for young people
  • Removing flaws and cliff-edge thresholds in systems such as the carer’s allowance, which can punish people instead of enabling them
  • Committing to serious investment in new social housing 
  • Increasing the living wage, to help low-income workers

On Wednesday, many of us gathered on Zoom to watch the Chancellor’s address to the House of Commons together, then to discuss it at length afterwards. We were also joined by a national newspaper journalist, who we have worked with over the years, to discuss the issues.

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