Make Them Pay: We’re backing the call for a just tax system
The Make Them Pay march this Saturday (September 20th) will see thousands of people demanding that the Government introduce a just tax system. We back them.
Marchers are demanding the UK Government take substantive action to tax extreme wealth and polluting corporations, so the country can re-invest in public services, protect workers, and tackle the climate crisis.
The demonstration will assemble at Portland Place, London at 12 noon on Saturday 20 September and has been organised by the ‘Make Them Pay’ coalition, a civil society alliance made up of 70+ organisations, including Church Action on Poverty, Global Justice Now, the Climate Justice Coalition, War on Want, the PCS Union, the Fire Brigades Union and more. Organisers have stated they expect thousands of people to take to the streets.
Three key demands
Their protest aims to rally support for three key demands:
- Taxing the super rich to fund public services
- Creating decent, well-paid and unionised jobs in sustainable industries around the country
- Making polluting corporations foot the bill for climate action.
Why Church Action on Poverty supports the campaign
Liam Purcell, chief executive of Church Action on Poverty, says::
More and more people are being swept into poverty by an ongoing cost-of-living scandal, a lack of decent work, and inadequate benefits. It reflects a society that places more value on some people than others. We urgently need real action to build a world where everyone can exercise dignity, agency and power. It's great to see people standing up today for that vision. Together, we have hope and we can work for change.
Liam Purcell
Chief exec, Church Action on Poverty
Make Them Pay: We want and deserve better
Izzie McIntosh, one of the lead organisers for the Make Them Pay demonstration says:
“Energy bills are rising, living standards are going down, climate change is destroying communities, and the super-rich are raking in the profits – all at our expense. No more. This September we will take to the streets, united in our thousands to demand our government makes them pay. While our political leaders roll out the red carpet to Trump – a megalomaniac bully who is bankrolled by billionaires and big oil – we will be on the streets representing the interests of ordinary people in this country, united in our diversity from all backgrounds and walks of life, who want and deserve better.”
Make Them Pay: Put people and planet before a wealthy few
Asad Rehman, chief executive of Friends of the Earth, says:
“As people in the UK struggle to put food on the table or pay for extortionate energy costs and rents, billionaires and greedy corporations are getting filthy rich off the rest of us. It’s unforgivable that such a small but powerful minority is being allowed to amass extreme wealth while so many are facing desperate levels of hardship, and our planet pays the price for their reckless exploitation and overconsumption of its resources.
“People are waking up to the fact they’re being played by those who know how to game the system. That’s why we’re coming together in a bid to reclaim our power – because there’s strength in numbers – and to tell the government it must put people and planet before the interests of a wealthy few.”
Fariya Mohiuddin, Deputy Director: External Affairs at Tax Justice UK says:
“Millions of people in the UK want to see politics make their lives better; particularly after years of struggling to meet basic needs compounded by an erosion in public services like healthcare, childcare, and water.
“Despite a change in government, all we’re seeing is politics continuing to work in the interests of the super-rich and powerful who have continued to increase their wealth.
“This is underpinned by a tax system that has one set of rules to protect and grow the wealth of the super-rich, and another set for everyone else.
“It’s high time the government ends this two-tier system and taxes wealth properly, starting with a wealth tax and making sure wealth and work are taxed the same. This revenue can help to make childcare affordable, healthcare available and making lives better. Poll after poll shows clearly that, if the government fails to make people feel an improvement in their lives, they will lose the next election.”
Steve Wright, Fire Brigades Union general secretary says:
“Firefighters are on the frontline of the climate emergency, battling to keep the public safe from increasing wildfires and floods. But with 1 in 5 firefighter posts lost to austerity since 2010, the fire and rescue service is in a state of emergency. While public services have been cut to the bone, the oil and gas giants fuelling this crisis are raking in profits. Billionaires are hoarding more wealth than ever, and the rich continue to get richer at our expense. We demand that the government introduces a wealth tax to fund public services, create jobs, and build an economy that serves ordinary people instead of the super-rich.”
Make Them Pay: A growing case for change
Recent months have seen demands for a wealth tax in the UK – an annual levy on assets aimed at the ultra-wealthy in society – gain more prominence. The UK has a very high level of inequality, with the country’s 50 richest families holding more wealth than 50% of the population. Modelling from Tax Justice UK, shows that a 2% levy on individuals who own assets worth more than £10 million – which would affect only 0.04% of the UK population – would raise £24 billion a year. Meanwhile, energy bills in the UK are set to rise once more from October, affecting around 20 million households.
Church Action on Poverty Sheffield: 2025 pilgrimage
16th annual pilgrimage
Saturday 11 October, 2025
Hear about local issues and responses, as we walk and pray together
Gather: 9am, St Cuthbert’s Church, Barnsley Road, Sheffield (opposite the Northern General Hospital) for a 9:30am start.
Visit: St Cuthbert’s Church, Wincobank Wood, Upper Wincobank Undenominational Chapel and Firth Park Methodist Church, with stops at relevant places to pray for education, healthcare and the environment.
Meet: People tackling local social challenges.
Length: 2.5 miles
End: 2:30pm
Join us and learn about:
- The challenges faced by this diverse and multicultural area.
- The Fir Vale Food Bank at St Cuthbert’s, offering help to all in need throughout the year without the need for an official referral.
- Wincobank Nondenominational Chapel, founded in 1841 by Mary Ann Rawson, the famous anti slavery campaigner.
- The work of Firth Park Methodist Church, with its ‘Food for Thought’ lunch, community and Warm Space facilities and Sam’s Space soft play facilities.
Practicalities
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This year’s Pilgrimage involves some upward gradients of around 4% over distances of around just one mile, so please think carefully about your fitness to tackle these gradients.
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St Cuthbert’s is best reached by public transport.
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A number of buses serve the Northern General Hospital, including the 29 between Fir Vale and High Green, 47/48 between Shire Green and Herdings, 75/76 between Low Edges and Meadowhall and the 88 between Bents Green and Ecclesfield, which all stop on Barnsley Road, opposite the church.
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The Pilgrimage ends at Firth Park, which is also served by a number of buses, including the 75/76 and the 88, mentioned above, and the 18 between Heeley and Hillsborough.
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Parking is limited close to the start of the Pilgrimage and participants would have to walk or get a bus back to the Northern General Hospital to pick up their cars.
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Please follow stewards’ advice, particularly at road crossings.
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Walkers take part at their own risk, please wear suitable footwear and bring a waterproof. Anyone under 18 must walk with a responsible adult.
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The event is not suitable for dogs as we enter premises.
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We will stop for lunch at Firth Park Methodist Church. Please bring your own packed lunch and drinks.
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Some locations we visit have toilet facilities.
Come and be open and be challenged and changed by what you see and hear
For more information or to register to attend, contact Briony Broome at Church Action on Poverty Sheffield on 07801 532 954 or send an email by clicking below.
Glory: How I’m striving for change and a better society
Change happens when people work together to demand it, and we love hearing inspiring stories of people doing just that.
This blog showcases the experiences of Glory Omoaka, who has worked with a huge range of people and groups to challenge the injustices she has encountered, and to remove hurdles for other people.
In recent years, Glory has:
Helped to change the unjust funding rules that denied her vital support for her nursing training.
Campaigned for more dignified approaches to help people going through food insecurity.
Worked with The Food Foundation on a range of campaigns to empower low-income communities.
Joined a Poverty Truth Commission in Scotland to help shape systems where she lives
Become a trustee with Church Action on Poverty, to help drive change across the UK
Been one of the leading voices in the Let’s End Poverty work.
What motivates Glory to consistently step up?
“I want change. I want a better society. I want to see smiles on people’s faces, and to see things done in the right way.”
Glory's introduction to activism
One of Glory’s first campaigning experiences came when she was doing her nursing qualifications in Glasgow, with the aim of working in the NHS. Glory was born in Nigeria, but the rules on student funding for people born outside the UK were very outdated, and she was being denied support that other students could access. Glory could see that the world of work was evolving, and the rules needed to be reformed.
The Poverty Truth Commission in Scotland helped arrange meetings with Ministers, but only after taking a legal case was she given the support she was due – but she then faced similar inequality while continuing her training. Other student nurses were awarded funding to help with travel costs to their placements, and other expenses, but Glory was not.
“I struggled and struggled through the pandemic, and was watching my coursemates accessing support and enjoying their studies while I was struggling. It was not a fair system. Even though I was down, I wanted to stay to the end. There was another woman in the same situation and she took Legal Aid to get a lawyer, and with the support of the charity JustRight Scotland, we took the case and won, and the long-term residency rules were changed.
“I went through some horrible situations, I do not have the words to describe what I went through, but I have always wanted to help people, and I have often met with MPs or MSPs to show what should change.”
Following that relationship, Glory has been a member of JustRight Scotland’s panel.
Glory: food in focus
Another of Glory’s big areas of focus has been food. During the Covid lockdowns, some councils were giving low-income families vouchers that could only be used in certain shops, and Glory was among the groups calling for more dignified cash payments instead.
She has also encouraged community food projects to ensure they offer a diverse range of food, to reflect the cultures and backgrounds of different groups, and is also involved in campaigns to reduce sugar and junk-food advertising.
“We are also campaigning for free school meals to be extended and to be allocated automatically, so people who don’t have internet access or struggle with filling in the form are not left out. And I also volunteer with the Dignity project with Nourish Scotland, working to ensure people who access food banks are treated in a dignified way.
“When I first went on to Universal Credit, I was given a food bank voucher but I did not need it immediately, so saved it. When I then tried to use it, I was told it had expired and I was called terrible names and called a thief. I did not want anyone else to go through this, so I have been campaigning in this regard, to give holistic support to people at food banks.”
Glory is also a member of Nourish Scotland’s meaningful participation panel, and also a Food Foundation ambassador, which involves talking about poverty and food insecurity, and campaigning for things like free school meals, and helping to support families.
Challenging UK poverty
In 2023-24, through her work with the Poverty Truth Commission in Glasgow, Glory was introduced to the Let’s End Poverty campaign, and became a member of the steering group.
As part of that, she was one of 15 contributors to Dear Prime Minister, a collection of letters to Sir Keir Starmer from people with personal experience of poverty, and she attended the launch event at the House of Commons.
“It felt very good doing that. How rare it is to have an opportunity to express your experience and to have a voice. Even if the outcomes are slow, it gives a relief. I was happy with that opportunity and hope that work continues. Through Let’s End Poverty, I met Church Action on Poverty, and now I have become a trustee.”
The amazing 11-year-olds uniting a community through food
This inspiring story tells of five 11-year-olds, who have become the youngest people in the UK to launch a Pantry.
Makayla, Ahmad, Retaj, Ayman and Mustafa created the Pantry at Marlborough Community Hub, a community building in the grounds of Marlborough Road primary school in Salford as part of a leadership project, with support from staff.
What the children say:
Ayman: “Everyone was talking about how we could help the community, and make it more fair for everyone. We wanted to help with the financial situation and help people come together, because this is not just for food. I hope it becomes well known then becomes a really big help. This can help our community. It’s been very busy and people love how we have set everything up and made it very affordable, especially for people in hard financial situations.
“We are a welcoming diverse school and we are very unique, especially now that we’re the first children in the country to open a Pantry!”
Ahmad: “It will help the community by lowering costs and making it more affordable to eat.”
Retaj: “My hope is for it to grow and for my parents to come and shop here and for it to be more affordable.”
Makayla: “I’m proud. Not every school could do something like this.”
Mustafa: “We all thought about people in need and we wanted to comfort and help people around us, and we talked about what we could do in the Pantry.”
How they did it...
The children worked on the Pantry idea as part of a leadership project when they were in Year 5.
The Pantry was all ready to open a year ago, but was then badly damaged by a serious fire that began in the lighting, the day after the soft launch, which forced a big rebuilding project.
A pop-up stall was used while the damage was repaired, but the Pantry was completed again in time for the children to see it before they moved on to secondary school this summer.
Judith Richens, community development lead at the hub, said she was hugely proud of the children. There are 48 first languages at the school, and Judith said the children had excelled in explaining the Pantry to families and translating for people.
They also visited a Pantry in Stockport to see how it works, and talked about their idea to other schools in their academy trust., United Learning.
We'll work together, see what matters and make it happen
Judith says: “What particularly attracted me to the Pantry rather than a social supermarket or a food bank, is the membership idea. It is for members and run by members, and people choose and shop, rather than someone assuming what people are to have, and saying ‘this is what we’re giving you’.
“We also have an allotment next to the building to grow food for school dinners, and to provide fruit and veg for the Pantry, and there’s the added bonus of reducing the carbon footprint of the school.
“This space is not just a Pantry. It’s an opportunity to meet people, and with other projects it becomes a wrap-around support service.
“Our ultimate aim, wider than the Pantry, is for this community space to be used by the community for the community. We are listening to what people want and finding out what matters and helping use people’s gifts and talents to make it happen.”
The Pantry also has an allotment, created by the previous year’s pupil project, including rhubarb, onions, raspberries, carrots, courgettes, flowers, strawberries, garlic and potatoes, and a hedgerow of other edibles, created with City of Trees.
The Community Hub is supported by Your Local Pantry partner, United Communities, a charity that supports the development of place-based, school-linked community hubs.
Pantry can bring the community together
Shumaila Taswir, Ayman’s mum and lead volunteer, says: “I hope it will bring the community together and help people in difficult times. Most people are struggling but do not like to say.
Here, they can come and choose whatever they want, and socialise here as well.”
The Pantry will be open every week, with a daytime session and an evening session. The evening slot will double as a drop-in session with Barnardo’s, for local 16 to 20-year-olds living independently.
There will be a cafe area and the Pantry has teamed up with Neighbourly and local Aldi and M&S stores, to help source extra stock.
Prayer, care and action: how Christians should respond to injustice
Guest writer Greg Smith shares a personal story of injustice in the care system, and urges churchgoers to demand better from our society.
We first met Precious two years ago when she turned up to morning worship.
She had recently arrived with her nine year old child from one of Britain’s former colonies. She asked for prayer that she might be able to find additional care work with a better employer, and a school place.
The vicar and I arranged to meet up with her during the week to find out more and to see how the church could help. Thus began a long relationship, involving advice, advocacy, prayer and practical help for two fellow Christians trapped in a desperate situation, and a steep learning curve about a great social injustice.
The care crisis
As a church with an ageing demographic we were familiar with the local adult care system as church and family members needed help from home carers, or places in care homes, some of which were visited by our ministers and congregations, especially to sing carols at Christmas.
Some of our working age members worked in the NHS or in social care. Some of us had anxieties as to whether we would be cared for well when the time came, and whether we would need to pay for our own care out of savings or by selling our house.
According to the Centre for Ageing Better
- The older population in England is getting larger. In the last 40 years, the number of people aged 50 and over has increased by over 6.8 million (a 47% increase), and the number aged 65 and over has increased by over 3.5 million (a 52% increase).
- The number of people aged 65-79 is predicted to increase by nearly a third (30%) to over 10 million in the next 40 years, while the number of people aged 80 and over – the fastest growing segment of the population – is set to more than double to over 6 million.
In 2011 the Dilnot Commission on social care made numerous recommendations for reform to the care system which are still to be implemented. A Parliamentary Briefing paper published in 2024 spells out the implications for the increasing cost of health and social care and poses some key questions for future policy. Another briefing paper in 2024 focused on the capacity pressures on the NHS and social care systems. In 2023 the Nuffield Foundation documented the decline of public funding for social care. The Covid pandemic of 2020-21 put extreme strain on the system and according to ONS there were over 45,000 Covid related deaths of care home residents in England and Wales.
Overseas workers sponsorship scheme
Post pandemic there was a crisis in recruitment of staff in the social care sector documented in a 2023 Health Foundation report.
In order to meet the labour shortage in 2022 the UK government introduced the health and care worker visa scheme and promoted recruitment of overseas nationals. The visas were dependent on finding an employer who would offer sponsorship for particular posts in the sector. Care homes and care recruitment agencies were able to register rapidly as sponsors, and to advertise job opportunities across the globe, and made attractive promises about working conditions, salaries and help with housing.
Visas issued for health and care workers and their families peaked at 348,000 in 2023, falling to 111,000 in 2024.
Precious arrived in our city in 2023, having borrowed around £15,000 to finance what she hoped was a new start and a more prosperous life in the UK.
No recourse to public funds
One of the key elements of this scheme is that care workers recruited under sponsorship have minimal rights. They are only allowed to work for their sponsor, other than that they may take 20 hours a week in a second job in a similar role. Of course they pay income tax and National Insurance contributions on any earnings.
They have no recourse to public funds, meaning they can claim no benefits if sick or laid off, and have no rights to apply for social housing or other housing assistance. Women who are single and destitute are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
They can access the NHS for medical care, and dependent children can go to school (if they can find a place) but not receive free school meals or child benefit. However, changes made in 2024 prevent new applicants from bringing dependents into the UK.
For Precious, who arrived with her child before the ban on dependents came into force, this meant she had to accept a low quality rented room in a shared house (HMO) where no child should be allowed to live. It meant accepting a primary school place three miles from home, incurring travel costs of £12 a day, and persuading the school to offer free meals from its own discretionary budget.
Working any long shifts at unsocial hours meant child care costs, which she could not afford to cover, therefore leaving a child alone at home or with risky informal free care from friends and neighbours.
Worse still, one icy January morning she slipped, fell and broke her wrist. For several months she was unable to work, with no rights to any sick pay or other benefits. They only survived because of very generous financial help, pulled together through the local church and their wider Christian network.
The crooked companies
The system is made far worse because of extensive corruption and brutal exploitation among many of the employing companies. Charging large fees for arranging the sponsorship visa is commonplace; we have heard of rates between £12,000 and £28,000 being asked, many times the official fee of £304 per person.
Many of the sponsoring companies are no more than employment agencies providing temporary and occasional cover staff to care homes, or bad employers offering “gig economy” work in the poorly regulated home care industries. We know of agencies that offer shifts to students and migrants with no legal right to work on a cash in hand basis at rates below the minimum wage.
Some of these companies lack secure long term contracts with local authorities, meaning they fail to offer full time work to their employees. In the worst cases they provide false monthly pay slips to show HMRC and the Home Office that full time hours have been worked, and make deductions for tax and National insurance at commensurate rates. There are sometimes further deductions for uniforms, transport costs, and to repay loans.
Precious fell victim to one of the worst of these companies. Her pay slip always showed she had worked 40 hours a week for a gross monthly salary of £2000. Most weeks she was offered no more than a couple of shifts via a second company, at unsocial hours, in another town nearly 20 miles away, requiring a long bus, or expensive taxi journey.
Several times, she and colleagues were (illegally) offered alternative work packing frozen food in a warehouse. Whatever she actually earned, and after her accident it was nothing, the employer demanded payment of the income tax and NI contribution based on her false payslip.
Eventually HMRC became suspicious and sent a team of investigators to interview the employer and some of the workers. They were blackmailed into telling lies to match the employer’s story, because of their vulnerability and fear. The terms of the sponsorship visa state that if they cease to work for the original employer they have only 60 days to find an alternative sponsor, after which their visa is revoked and they become liable to removal from the UK.
Exploitation, slavery and vulnerability
From 2023 onwards there has been growing awareness and campaigning about the failings of the scheme spearheaded by the trade union Unison. Government action was set in the context of populist demands to greatly reduce immigration numbers., so in May 2025 government announced an end to the scheme.
With growing concern about exploitation verging on slavery, and law breaking 470 companies had their licenses removed and 39,000 workers were left without an employer.
Precious and many of her colleagues were among this number, left in limbo and desperately seeking new employers. Suitable jobs remain hard to find, especially ones with family friendly hours and decent working conditions. Most employers still charge huge fees for new sponsorships, despite this being against the new regulations. The government has set up an agency to help find care jobs for these unemployed people, but it has had limited success, and amounts to little more than distributing regional lists of employers who still have a sponsorship licence.
At the present time Precious remains jobless and destitute, despite making hundreds of job applications online and visiting many local care homes to ask about vacancies. Last month she was offered a part time job by a local care home as a housekeeper, rather than a care assistant. When the employer checked her right to work with the Home Office they were informed that she had no right to work in this particular role, and had to withdraw the offer.
What would Amos say?...
The whole sorry story illustrates how far the UK has moved away from William Temple’s conception of the post war welfare state. The failure of social care policy in the face of growing need for support of older people, and the exploitation of low paid overseas labour with limited rights has made us into a care-less society.
A faith-based approach from within the Christian, or other traditions would surely demand something better. The prophet Amos (5; 10-15) still speaks to this situation today.
What can be done?
In the light of these experiences churches and community groups need to be on the lookout for people who are trapped in similar situations. We need to offer emotional, spiritual and in many cases costly financial support and advocacy and signposting to statutory and voluntary organisations who can help.
We need to join campaigns such as those organised by trade unions to lobby for workers rights. If we know of, or have suspicions about, care homes and employment agencies that treat their overseas workers badly, we should not be afraid of asking challenging questions directly. We can write to MPs and council leaders, who commission adult social care services, to raise these issues with stories and other evidence.
The Government needs to hear and admit that the care worker scheme was ill thought out, and open to corruption and abuse, as well as being mean and unfair to overseas workers. The Labour government has made some progress in investigating and enforcing corrupt practices of “employers”, but still needs to be more vigorous and effective in enforcing the regulations.
Finally we should call on the Government to offer help to workers who have had their sponsorships revoked and face destitution, by offering them benefits (Universal Credit) for up to six months. Job Centres should then provide more serious help, such as a work coach who would match workers with local vacancies in the care sector, ensure this was secured with a proper contract of employment with no hidden fees.
A few simple steps would put an end to this scandal and abuse of workers rights.
Greg Smith has worked for nearly 50 years in urban mission, community development and social research in London and Preston and been a supporter of Church Action on Poverty since it began. He is a William Temple Foundation Senior Research Fellow and Trustee of the Urban Theology Unit. He has published extensively on religion in the inner city, faith involvement in urban regeneration, and urban theology.
Empty Plate Project lets local people be heard
Art can be a brilliant way to engage people in social justice issues - as we see here once again
The Empty Plate Project in Wolverhampton is one of the fantastic art activities that was supported by Let’s End Poverty.
The concept was to invite people to make and decorate a plate, sharing their story of the lived experience of poverty.
Just asking “Could you help me with a free art project?” was all it took for folks to quickly move on, or slow down with curiosity.
Organisers expected people to be willing and able to speak about the negative impact of poverty – What actually happened was that people wanted to share messages of empowerment and encouragement: that what will be fragile plates hanging in the art installation hold message of resilience.
It’s such an important thing to hear, and organisers from the West Midlands Methodist Circuit say it is so characteristic of the area.
Even when there were stories of pain, bereavement, late diagnosis of neurodiversity, and struggles, this was only ever in the context of hope, community, and beautiful stubbornness to simply keep going.
Some walked past because they “didn’t have the time” but dozens of people took the invitation to stop for a while. Those who were persuaded to stop just for a quick moment were often those who chose longer and harder methods for decoration and who stayed for ages!
The clay vessels were then fired so they could form part of a launch installation at the forthcoming Bilston Oasis Project – where work towards a poverty truth commission will find a home.
We have a new Chief Exec – and we’ll continue to be a catalyst for change!
Liam Purcell steps into the role as of 1 July.
He says:
“I’m excited to carry forward Church Action on Poverty’s amazing vision, and work closely alongside the many churches and other partners who share our values of dignity, agency and power. I’m proud to be part of an organisation that is always rooted in the lived experience of people who live with poverty.
“I’ll focus on how we can be a catalyst for change in communities and a resource for churches who want to tackle poverty. We’ll also continue speaking truth to power and challenging injustice. And I want us to pioneer new ideas and approaches that can transform people’s lives, as we have done with programmes like participatory budgeting, Schools of Participation, and Your Local Pantry.
“I spent a lot of last year listening deeply to our supporters and partners. I’m inspired by their commitment and vision, and I look forward to finding out what we can do together.
“I know that the support we receive from churches is essential to sustain our work, and I’ve also seen first-hand the amazing difference that churches can make in their communities. If any churches are looking to tackle the injustice of poverty, we’d love to work together.”
Helen Goodman, chair of Church Action on Poverty’s Council of Management, says: “We had a high number of first-class applicants for this role and following a rigorous process the Council of Management appointed Liam. He has total commitment to the organisation and its values. At the same time we believe his experience and management skills will serve the organisation well, following a period of phenomenal growth and in a time when action to tackle poverty is really important.”
Liam has overseen Church Action on Poverty’s communications since 2007, and played a lead role in initiatives including Let’s End Poverty, End Hunger UK, and Challenge Poverty Week. Prior to that, he was National Coordinator for the Student Christian Movement. He replaces Niall Cooper, who was Chief Executive of Church Action on Poverty from 1997 until he stepped down this summer.
Are churches losing faith in low-income communities?
David Price reports from a challenging event organised by our local group in Sheffield.
On 29 May 2025, Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield held a well-attended meeting on this subject at the Broomhall Centre in Sheffield. The meeting was held following research by Church Action on Poverty in the North West which showed that in recent years churches had closed churches disproportionately in low-income areas. The aim was to explore the place of low-income communities in churches in Sheffield and South Yorkshire more generally.
Introducing the meeting, Joe Forde, chair of the Sheffield branch, noted that it was 40 years since the Faith in the City Report had been published, expressing concern about the way in which national policies were marginalising low-income communities. While this report was produced by the Church of England, it reflected wider concerns across all the churches. We were now looking at the place of those communities in the churches today.
There were three speakers. The first was Niall Cooper, CEO of Church Action on Poverty nationally. It was his last public engagement in this job before he left Church Action on Poverty after 28 years. Niall felt that people in low-income communities were now in many ways in a worse position than they had been in 1985. Unemployment was lower, but the gap in our cities was greater. Average incomes had not increased for more than a decade. Child poverty had increased. Poverty was visceral – it hurt people.
Niall recalled that Pope Francis called for ‘a poor church, for the poor’. In March 2020 Church Action on Poverty decided to carry out research to find out how far the churches really were ‘for the poor’. They investigated the statistics of church closures in Greater Manchester. These showed that churches of nearly all denominations were disproportionately closing churches in low-income areas. Talking to church people produced some more positive stories, e,g. of a URC church with only six members in their 80s attending weekly services, but it kept going and many local groups used the building as a community hub. This suggested that it was wrong for denominations to make numbers at Sunday services the sole criterion as to whether a church building should be retained.
In response to a question about what was triggering the church closures, he said that it was partly money but also a middle-class mindset in church management which did not understand working-class communities. The Faith in the City report had been valuable in leading to the creation of the Church Urban Fund but it had not sufficiently changed the ethos and priorities of the churches or the training of clergy. It was important to draw on local leadership within working-class communities. Often what was needed was not a vicar, but expertise in building management, pastoral skills, etc. Joe Forde suggested that a theologically trained priest could play a valuable role in a working-class community.
The second speaker was Revd Lucy Sablan, now Rector of the Manor parish, after four years working in Arbourthorne. Both areas had extensive council estates and had experienced ever-increasing inequality in recent decades. Some statistics suggested that the Church of England spent twice as much in middle-class areas as in low-income communities. People in low-income communities had a great deal to offer. Some suffered from trauma and could be reluctant to open up after a succession of upsetting experiences. Work was hindered by a chronic lack of resources – both money and capacity. It took time to build up confidence. There was a need for more lay workers. She quoted the Twydall Declaration from a church in a housing estate in Gillingham, Kent:
“We affirm that God is with his people who live on housing estates and is already working powerfully amongst us. The kingdom of God has already come near in our midst, and this should be cause for celebration and gratitude amongst the whole people of God. We reject the notion that social deprivation indicates God-forsakenness and its flip side that financial stability indicates God’s blessing. Housing estates are not mere objects for the charity of the rich; they are diverse communities of people across the socio-economic spectrum in which the body of Christ has taken root and in which the Holy Spirit is active.”
She stressed inclusion: when we include someone, they often will include others.
The third speaker was Nick Waterfield, a Methodist lay Pioneer minister in Parson Cross. He had worked in the area for 15 years and there had been many changes in the arrangements affecting his work. There was now a charitable body called Parson Cross Initiative Projects, offering a food pantry, music and arts groups, allotments, social cafe, all focused on the desire to improve ‘social inclusion’. He has followed a chaplaincy model and is uneasy about the idea that ‘churches do things to people’ rather than standing alongside them. He also voiced concerns at the churches’ continued and prominent role in food banks, which up until 2010 had barely existed in the UK. He saw his role as listening and allowing himself to learn from, and be ministered to as much as ministering to others. Buildings might close but the church could still be there in the people involved. He felt that neo-liberalism had led to a visceral feeling of abandonment and asset stripping in poor areas. In the churches, there was a need for redistribution of resources and to persuade middle-class congregations to share resources more.
In discussion, various points were made:
- Churches often were valuable community hubs as well as places of worship. They should be ready to be counter-cultural.
- The churches needed to ensure the suitability of their clergy selection and training arrangements for people with a working-class background.
- Those protesting about the closure of a gym in Woodhouse were encouraged to make representations to Methodist circuit and district committees.
- Church Action on Poverty, including its Sheffield group, tried to act as a lobby in support of low-income communities within the churches. People were invited to join.
In conclusion, Joe Forde thanked the speakers and contributors to the discussion and in particular offered good wishes for the future to Niall Cooper.
“The cuts are deeply immoral and should be opposed by all Christians”
Activists have called for the disability minister to resign, after an “awful” meeting where he took no interest in what they had to say.
Church Action on Poverty has always believed that all people are of intrinsic equal value. We strive to reclaim the dignity, agency and power that is so often snatched away from people who live in poverty.
Each of us is an expert in our own situation, and yet people in poverty are all too often shouted down or talked about. That isn’t right. We know that people in poverty hold the wisdom and insights that are needed if we are to make the progress on social justice that the country craves.
Achieving change is rarely easy. It requires perseverance and commitment, and a determination to speak truth to power. Sometimes those messages are well-received, at other times we need to be tenacious in naming, challenging and fighting injustice. So it is right now.
In May, Stef, Sydnie and Mary (three activists who we have worked with for several years) attended a meeting with the disability minister, Sir Stephen Timms. They were eager to challenge the cuts and the Government’s harmful messaging, which disregards the inherent value of so many people, just because they are not currently able to work.
Stef, Sydnie and Mary entered the meeting full of hope – but left half an hour later, thoroughly dismayed.
The meeting was part of the Government’s professed consultation on huge cuts to Britain’s social security system, which will sweep millions of disabled people into deeper poverty. One member of the group joined online, and two attended in person along with two members of staff from the charity.
The group had prepared moral arguments and evidence for why the cuts will not achieve the stated goals, but the Minister showed no interest in the evidence, asked no questions and scarcely engaged with what the group had to say.
When Mary passed out at the end of the meeting, Mr Timms walked out without even checking whether she was okay, and the zoom link to her friend who could have given medical advice was disconnected.
Church Action on Poverty is now writing to Mr Timms, expressing disappointment with how the meeting unfolded, and including a briefing paper the group had prepared.
Mary: It was awful. I passed out; he walked out
Mary, who is also carer for her adult autistic son, said: “Stephen Timms and the Government need to understand that we (disabled and chronically sick people) are coming from a place of fear. I felt that in that room, facing that man and hearing what he had to say, that I had to justify my right to live.
“I felt such a deep fear for my son. What will happen to him when I die?
“The meeting was awful. He used a lot of our precious 30 minutes with over-long ‘answers’, he wasn’t interested in anything we had to say. He absolutely was not in the room to listen to us.
“There was no care, understanding or basic empathy for the group he is supposed to represent.
“Faced with a group that included three people with long term chronic conditions and disability, he refused to take on board anything that was said to him. He doesn’t care that Labour’s cuts to disability benefits will drive vulnerable people further into poverty. He knows this. He said it would create a culture change, but the fact that people will die because of these cuts doesn’t matter.
“At the end of the meeting I passed out through simple exhaustion. He didn’t even wait to see if I was okay. He walked around me lying on the floor to exit the room.
“What people like Timms need to realise is that being disabled costs money. The support we need to live with some dignity, to go to work or contribute to our community does not come free of charge either in terms of cash or physical/mental cost.”
Sydnie: This proposal will not cure us
Sydnie added: “For a person with a complex disability (having multiple disorders, illness etc) and who is neurodiverse, this proposal will not cure us or make us able to work, and there isn’t one or two simple reasonable adjustments that can create this so called curing of people’s complex disabilities, hidden or not.
“We said that employers cannot afford to pay for or risk hiring such people. Timms had no reply, no eye contact and showed no remorse, no empathy or willingness to comprehend something he clearly doesn’t understand.
“Bear in mind this was a meeting as a part of the consultation. There was no engagement, no questions asked of our situation, he did not listen. He talked straight away about needing to save money, even though we pointed out it’s breaking equality legislation.
“I referred to him as ‘shameful’, and said that he should resign, show a true stand for all disabled people, for their human rights and their rights to self-actualisation, to have a life worth living.
“After we poured our hearts out, gave him stats and figures and gave him hard very open honesty to how this will affect and end many, Stephen Timms still looked at us with a blank expression and said he believes changing PIP and access to work through job centres will work, saying it will make people change their ways.
“The whole affair is rigged, we know this but we have first-hand knowledge of this now.”
Stef: We expected him to believe in protecting the poor
Stef said: “We had hoped (expected), in attending the meeting, to find that Stephen Timms was conflicted in regard to his party’s plans, and that we could help him move towards resigning his ministerial position and rebelling against the Government as the principled and right course of action.
“As a Christian, we expected Timms to have a strong belief in protecting the poor and needy, and as a long-standing MP with substantial experience in the DWP, we expected him to understand the lack of evidence in support of Labour’s plans and the substantial evidence about the harm they will cause both to sick and disabled people and their carers, and to the economy and society more widely.
“We were surprised to find that Timms seems to genuinely and strongly believe that employment support, when provided by Labour, will have a profoundly different impact to the support provided under Conservative governments. There is no evidence to support this claim.
“We were surprised that Timms seems to genuinely believe that the Health Element of Universal Credit needs to be cut because of ‘perverse incentives’, despite such incentives having no bearing on whether a person is assessed as fit for work or not.
“We were also surprised that Timms argued both that PIP needs to be cut because it’s ‘unsustainable’ – which in essence means that sick and disabled people are an unsustainable burden on the country – and that cuts won’t be as severe as projected and that’s a good thing, even though he also thinks that the cuts do need to be severe. We couldn’t get any recognition of the inconsistency of this position from Timms.
“In a half hour meeting there wasn’t time to push back properly on any of Timms’ claims.
“It is hard to believe that an MP of his standing and experience could genuinely believe Labour’s lines on these cuts. But it seems that he does, and it’s difficult to know what evidence or anecdotes Timms needs to persuade him differently.
“The cuts proposed to the social security system for sick and disabled people have no justification.
“They are deeply immoral and should be opposed by all Christians and those who know anything about disability, chronic illness, social security, and work. The fact that Timms appears to genuinely support these cuts, given his long experience in this arena, is genuinely baffling. I urge Timms to listen to his conscience and to God, to resign from his ministerial position, and to stand with sick and disabled people in opposing such dangerous cuts.”
Stand with Mary, Sydnie and Stef
Earlier in the year, more than 300 Church Action on Poverty supporters endorsed Mary, Stef and Sydnie’s message by contacting their MPs and calling on them to oppose the immoral cuts. We will continue to speak out, and call on all churches and Christians to join us.
