Saturday 19 October 2024, 9:30am - 3:00pm: hear about local issues and responses to them as we walk and pray together
Gather: 9:00am, St Andrew’s URC Church, Upper Hanover Street for a 9:30am start
Visit: St Mark’s Church Broomhill; St Mary’s Walkley; Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, Hillsborough; with pauses for prayer at Sheffield’s central hospitals and women’s rights campaigner Adele Pankhurst’s former home
Meet: People tackling local social challenges.
Length: 2.8 miles
End: 2:30 – 3:00pm
Join us and learn about:
- St Andrew’s support for almost 30 local groups, representing, among others, the Iranian and Iraqi communities.
- A range of social action projects provided by St Mark’s Broomhill, including its soup run, lunch club and girls’ group.
- The work of St Mary’s Walkley in the local community and supporting local food banks.
- How Sacred Heart Hillsborough created and developed its Covenant with the Poor, including support for Sheffield Credit Union.
- The challenges facing the community.
Practicalities
- This year’s Pilgrimage involves gradients over around 4% up and down, each over distances of around one mile, so please think carefully about your fitness to tackle these gradients.
- St Andrew’s is best reached by public transport. Sheffield Supertram’s University stop is closest to the church and Supertram’s Hillsborough Interchange stop is close to the end of the Pilgrimage, for the return journey.
- The 51, 52, 52a and 257 buses along Western Bank and buses running along West Street and Glossop Road include the 6 and 120.
- Parking is limited close to the start of the Pilgrimage. There is an open-air car park on Broomspring Lane with 20 spaces, limited to four hours.
- There is also a mixture of long- and short-stay parking on Fitzwilliam Street, Eldon Street and Wellington Street.
- There are covered car parks on Durham Road, opposite the Children’s Hospital and off Rockingham Street, further from the Pilgrimage start.
- Please follow stewards’ advice, particularly at road crossings.
- Walkers take part at their own risk. Please wear suitable footwear and bring a waterproof. Anyone under 18 must walk with a responsible adult.
- The event is not suitable for dogs as we enter premises.
- We will stop for lunch at St Mary’s Walkley. Please bring your own packed lunch and drinks.
- Several 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 on 07801 532 954 or send an email by clicking below.
In this guest blog, Church Action on Poverty supporter Sam Corcoran lays out some of the reasons we're calling on the Government to put an end to the unjust sibling penalty.
Child benefit was a universal benefit that was not means-tested, but that changed in 2013 with the introduction of the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) which effectively reclaims child benefit if any household member is earning over £60,000 pa (£50,000 prior to 2024).
In 2017 a policy was introduced restricting Universal Credit and child tax credit for 3rd and subsequent children born after that year. The stated aim of the two-child limit was to make “families on benefits face the same financial choices about having children as families who are supporting themselves solely through work”. Without commenting on the moral case for using the benefits system to deter people from having children, the policy has failed to achieve its objective, with studies showing only a small fall in births in affected families.
What the policy has achieved is a massive rise in child poverty. 25% of children are now living in poverty. A report from the Resolution Foundation in January 2024 suggested that half of families with three children or more will be in poverty by 2028-29, up from a third in 2013-14 – whereas the number of two-child families in poverty is expected to stay the same, at one in four. This supports the argument that the two–child benefit limit has increased child poverty. It is estimated that 420,000 families were affected by the two-child limit in 2023, so the number of families affected is significant.
The impact of the limit is going to get worse.
As the policy applies to children born after 6 April 2017, the impact on child poverty is continuing to increase, and when the policy is fully rolled out it is expected to affect 750,000 families.
So why isn’t the new Government repealing the two-child limit?
Seven Labour MPs were suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party for supporting an amendment in the King’s Speech. At first sight this suggests that the Labour party is opposed to a change to the limit. However, comments from a number of other Labour MPs suggest a strong desire to reduce child poverty, and that the suspensions were about party unity around the King’s Speech. The way forward may be to persuade the Labour party to change its policy from within. The main objection to a change of policy seems to be the cost, estimated at £1.7bn, and where this would be funded from.
To put the costs in perspective, in the spring 2024 budget the High Income Benefit Charge Threshold was increased from £50,000 to £60,000, at a cost of £635 million in 2025-26.
In a wider context, investing in children carries long=term benefits, with improved educational outcomes and longer healthy life expectancy. Sir Michael Marmot advocates “Give every child the best start in life” as the first of six key recommendations in his report Fair Society; Healthy Lives to address health inequalities.
As a local councillor I have seen the impact that early intervention and prevention (or the lack of it) can have on the costs of expensive high-needs intervention. So perhaps the £1.7bn cost of abolishing the two-child limit should be compared with the £7.3bn a year spent on Research & Development tax credits, of which over £1bn goes on R&D carried out overseas, and 80% of the cost goes on research that would have happened anyway.
The case for abolishing the two-child limit seems strong. It has not achieved its stated aims. It has contributed to an increase in child poverty.
Some further reading
- Child poverty in the midst of wealth (UNICEF TransMonEE)
- Absolute poverty: UK sees biggest rise for 30 years (BBC News)
- Catastrophic caps (Resolution Foundation)
- Two-child benefit cap: ‘Every month is a struggle’ (BBC News)
The politics
Connor Naismith MP posted on X/Twitter:
“I passionately care about lifting the 7,000 children in my constituency out of poverty. Motions to amend a King’s Speech will not do that. A serious, considered plan from a Labour government will. I will work constructively with colleagues to ensure we deliver that plan.”
Sam Corcoran is a Labour councillor, former leader of Cheshire East Council, and a member of the Roman Catholic National Justice and Peace Network.
In recent years, social media networks have become less useful as a way of having conversations, sharing messages and mobilising people to act for change. In August 2024, lies spread on social media played a key role in sparking racist riots across the UK.
Twitter (now known as X) is the platform most involved in spreading hate and disinformation. We have therefore decided we will no longer be posting on Twitter, although our account will remain open.
You can still find us on all the other major social networks:
Or even better, sign up for our regular email updates. Email is the best way to ensure you get all the news from us and can stay connected.
If you’re a partner in our work, please let us know which social media channels you’re still using. We’ll follow you and do what we can to share and boost your messages.
Theologian Greg Smith reviews the new book by anti-poverty activist Stef Benstead.
This is a remarkable and challenging book aimed mainly at evangelical Christians who want to, or perhaps ought to, consider how they should be responding to poverty and inequality in the UK. It comes from someone who is rooted and grounded in conservative evangelicalism of the Reformed variety, who begins the discussion of just worship (page 7) with a reference to the Westminster Confession of 1646 which “…says that man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” The assumption is that true worship begins with repentance and faith in Jesus, which produces obedience to the teachings of Scripture, and produces Christian lives, which demonstrate God’s character to others and bring glory to him.
A plain-sense reading
It is not surprising therefore that the strength of this book is exposition of the Bible, particularly the texts which address issues of justice, mercy and poverty. There are indeed plenty of them, in the Torah and the Prophets, and in the New Testament. Sadly in evangelical churches they are often not well known, preached about or reflected upon, or put into practice, in comparison to the words of comfort and assurance to faltering sinners. Stef Benstead offers a reading of Scripture through a plain-sense, almost literalistic hermeneutic, and in doing so presents a classically prophetic call to the church. For example (page 21):
We need to live lives that match up to the teaching of the Bible and the character of God if we are to truthfully claim that we are his people. We need to be little images of Christ on earth, showing in our lives and actions what God is like and what he wants. If we don’t then, all the rest of our worship – our songs, prayers, and Bible studies – are no better than idolatry. If we don’t seek to obey God, then the worship that we do offer is no better than like offering sacrifices to please false gods.
As a Christian who has tried to live by these biblical teachings for half a century, I enjoyed this emphasis, and discovered some fresh insights. Almost inevitably I felt a measure of guilt for some of the things I ought not to have done, and some of the things I have not done that I ought to have done. I hope that other Christian readers, and I recommend that they read it, will not respond either with denial of our complicity in the structures of inequality and poverty, or a paralysis of guilt that prevents meaningful amendment of life. I hope the biblical focus of the book will not be a barrier to others who do not share the author’s presuppositions and theology.
Lived experience
I can’t see many non-Christians picking up and reading this book, which is a pity, because alongside the biblical material the writing is grounded in personal experience of poverty, and analysis of UK policy injustices that increase hardship. In chapter 3, Stef makes the distinction between charity and justice, drawing on her personal experience as a person with long-term illness, relying on state disability benefits, yet still expected to find paid work. She has experienced the indignity of needing to use a local food pantry, where there is little or no choice offered to the recipients, and where much of the food is low-quality or out of date, and leftovers from the supermarkets. It is a reminder that all theology and hermeneutics is contextual, and our personal experiences and social positionality shape the way we think about the justice of God. I hope that in future writings Stef can further develop this line of thinking.
Economics
The author has clearly done a lot of hard work reading about social policy and the wider research on inequality and poverty in the UK. The material about social injustice is presented in an accessible way, challenging the greed of those who amass wealth and the sins of employers who fail to pay a real living wage. In chapter 4, she addresses the contradictions and self-destructive tendencies of global neo-liberal economics that drive austerity policies. Inequality harms both the economy and the political and social sphere too. Chapter 5 draws on the stories of the patriarchs to explore how riches can be used with generosity for the common good, though in none of the narratives is wealth unambiguously a blessing, or is mixed with other sinful behaviour. She then presents a personal challenge for those of us who have a comfortable lifestyle, how we should consider generous sharing of what we have with others who have less, and how we can strengthen and build local community. Churches, especially those rooted in neighbourhoods where poverty is commonplace, have great opportunities to build solidarity and an alternative economy, based on radical values of mercy and inclusion. However, too many middle-class Christians simply follow consumerist values, especially in the housing market, which isolates them from the struggles of people in what David Sheppard in the 1980s called “uncomfortable Britain”.
Politics
The final chapters of the book turn to politics and public policy. In the Reformed theological framework it is taken for granted that the secular government is under the authority of God and in its policies should reflect the justice and mercy of God in the way it treats and governs its citizens. The church has a right and duty to call rulers to account and to advocate policies in line with Christian values, and which reward virtue. The discussion is helpful and draws out some issues of principle around freedom, equity and caring for the poor. The unresolved problem for me is that this assumes the classic approach of evangelicalism from Wilberforce onwards of working for gradual reform by Parliamentary mechanisms. It is not clear to me that (even our new) government shares these values, or understands the faith commitments that drive them, especially when they are trapped by the opinions of the electorate, for example over immigration. There could be more in the book about practical politics, about community organising as in the Citizens movement, and the Poverty Truth network that amplifies the voices of people struggling in everyday hardship.
Steff Benstead is to be thanked for writing a book which brings together the radical teaching of the Bible with the reality of life in unequal Britain today. Please do buy and read it, and use the material to provoke discussion in your church or small Bible study groups.
Greg Smith is a Bible-loving, liberation theology inspired, urban Christian activist. Read more of his thoughts on his ‘Primitive Ranter’ blog.
The United Reformed Church’s North West Synod is adopting a new anti-poverty strategy inspired by our Church at the Margins programme – and urging the wider church to do likewise. The Synod’s Transformation Director Mike Hart explains.
“What does a Church with People at the Margins look like?” is a question that the North Western Synod of the United Reformed Church has wrestled with as we sought to respond to the growing issues of economic deprivation and marginalisation in many communities local to our churches.
From the statistics produced by the Church Urban Fund, we were able to think about the depth, extent, and the variety of the roots of poverty in North West England. Over a third of our churches serve in communities ranked in the 10% most deprived in England. They range from rural Cumbria to housing estates in South Manchester, from the Irish Sea coast to the mill towns of Lancashire, and remain a presence in many of our town and city centres.
We drew inspiration from the biblical calls of the prophets for peace and justice, and were reminded that all people are created in the image of God. The Gospel stories taught us again of the way in which Jesus actively sought out those who were marginalised by the society of his time. We took direction from the Marks of Mission’s call to service through tending those in need and to transform unjust structures.
Finally, the work of Church Action on Poverty enabled us to reflect on the value of providing dignity, agency, and power to all people in creating an inclusive community, and the importance of making space to listen to people who are too often excluded from society. The word with in the strategy is deliberate, and a reminder that too often as churches we have offered support for or to people and communities, without understanding their hopes and aspirations and standing with them.
A real difference will only happen through the ways in which local churches engage with their communities, and so key to the strategy is a set of behaviours which we want to encourage churches to adopt. Behaviours which are about their generosity of spirit and resources, their inclusivity of all people in their community, and their willingness to go beyond compassion to seek structural change. Behaviours that are important in all aspects of our mission and ministry.
As a Synod we have committed to supporting and enabling churches to respond, and to prioritise the use of our resources for this work, particularly where it is rooted in the most economically disadvantaged communities in our region. Being church in marginalised communities is not easy, and we will achieve more if we can work collaboratively with others, both faith and secular, who share our objectives.
In a mixture of generosity and challenge, we offer the work we have done to create this strategy to churches and faith organisations beyond our Synod. Our challenge is about how they prioritise and respond in the communities they serve. Our invitation is for them to journey with us, to learn from each other in mission and ministry about how we can all be better at being Church with People at the Margins.
The North West Synod adopted the ‘A Church with People at the Margins’ strategy in March 2024. They are offering the strategy to the wider United Reformed Church through a resolution at General Assembly in early July.
In this guest post, Bryn Lauder of the JustMoney Movement explores the connections between poverty and tax justice.
Last month, I had the privilege of visiting a food bank and clothes bar in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Many of us have felt that sense of pride and joy at seeing the local church actively and compassionately serving local communities, meeting the most marginalised with open doors and open hands.
But following the sense of pride in seeing the church be the hands and feet of Jesus, questions naturally arise:
- Why, in the sixth largest economy in the world, do so many people need to depend on these services?
- What is driving poverty, inequality and injustice in our society and how do we tackle it at the root?
Over 50 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr delivered his sermon ‘A Time to Break Silence’. In it he challenges us:
‘On the one hand we are called to play The Good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that people will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard or superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars, needs restructuring.’
But, how do we transform the whole Jericho Road?
At the JustMoney Movement we believe it’s vital that the church has the big conversations about justice, asking ourselves how we can campaign and act for a world free from poverty, where our systems and structures treat all people equally and with dignity.
We have a vision of a new Jericho Road, where all may walk freely, with dignity. Our vision is of a world where money is used to shape a fairer, greener future for everyone.
That is why on 9 June, we are inviting churches across the UK to mark Tax Justice Sunday. Tax isn’t an easy topic and it’s not one we often hear about in church! Yet taxes are part of everyday life: they are a tool of government, a mechanism for distributing wealth, and a means of raising revenue towards a strong welfare state and well-functioning public services.
If as a church we want to move past charity and towards justice, surely we should be thinking and talking more about tax.
Tax could be a tool for addressing these issues, but as it stands the system often does the opposite. Taxes fall most heavily on those with lower incomes, so that the very wealthiest in society do not pay their fair share. At the JustMoney Movement, we see tax not as a burden, but a blessing: a way that we can show love for our neighbours and care for creation. That’s why we run the Church Action for Tax Justice campaign, calling for fairer taxes to get us closer to the kind of just, compassionate society we see in the biblical Jubilee and in Jesus’ kingdom values.
We understand that tax can be a difficult topic, but we also know that to truly be a justice-seeking church, we need to step out of our comfort zone.
What next?
- Download our Tax Justice Sunday resource which includes a Bible study, reflections, prayers and actions here.
- We believe taxes are a blessing, not a burden, and we are working hard to shift this narrative. Let us know what you’re thankful your taxes pay for here.
- Join us on 11 June for our Fair Tax Week MoneyTalks event with former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Find out more here.
Sheffield Church Action on Poverty’s first Civic Breakfast since Covid has heard that around 120,000 people in Sheffield are living in poverty, homelessness is the worst it has ever been, and city food banks could collapse if demand continues to increase.
The Civic Breakfast provides an opportunity for organisations working to address issues caused by poverty in the city to raise and expand understanding of their work and the issues involved. It is attended by politicians, civic leaders, officials and faith leaders from Sheffield.
Guests saw a video, produced by Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield, showing the work of the Grace Food Bank in the Lowedges area of the city, before hearing from the food bank’s chair Dr Jackie Butcher and Sheffield University Professor of Social Policy Alan Walker.
Professor Walker told Civic Breakfast guests, including Sheffield City Council leader Tom Hunt and Lord Mayor Colin Ross:
“During the cost-of-living crisis, more and more families fell into deep poverty. It’s not a matter of juggling and budgeting – they simply don’t have enough money to make ends meet.”
Prof Walker said three out of four families in poverty were going without and three in five did not have enough money to buy the food they needed. There were 120,000 people, including 28,000 children, living in absolute poverty in Sheffield in 2022-23, a 6,000 increase on 2021- 22.
What’s more, 38,000 were living in destitution and 37,000 experiencing severe food insecurity – a 15,000 increase on 2021-22.
Prof Walker said there had been “an unprecedented attack” on the incomes of the poorest. These included the month delay before Universal Credit begins being paid to claimants, the freezing of payment levels, and the abolition of payments for more than two children.
To make matters worse, as poverty increased the government had simply changed the definition of poverty to disguise the rise.
“In Sheffield, 50,000 people are experiencing negative budgets, where more money is going out than coming in – and that is even if they claim all the benefits they are entitled to. A further 35,000 people are ‘running on empty’.
Government policies have a very important role to play in combating poverty. Benefit rates are too low. It’s a trap, it’s a systemic trap – and it can be changed.”
The Grace Food Bank’s Dr Butcher said demand had doubled between 2001 and 2022 and again between 2022 and 2023, and was still rising. “If demand doubles again we won’t be able to cope,” she warned.
She derided claims that people could survive by shopping around and cooking meals themselves, pointing out that some food bank clients had, at best, just a kettle.
“People come to us because the system is broken. They can’t afford ‘stuff’, they can’t afford to make their home safe for a disabled child, they can’t afford to visit their child in hospital, they can’t afford to heat their home to deal with their COPD. We need the wholesale re-organisation of the system in this country.”
Tim Renshaw, chief executive of the Cathedral Archer Project, which provides support for the homeless in Sheffield, told guests:
“Homelessness has never been so bad. There are 865 households in temporary accommodation and 45 rough sleepers a night.”
Mr Renshaw described plans to use Public Space Protection Orders to move homeless people out of some areas as “an absolute red herring – a piece of political magical thinking.”
Sheffield City Council Labour Leader Tom Hunt praised local initiatives for trying to lift people out of poverty. He stressed the cost-of-living crisis had been going on for far longer than the recent price rises
and was the result of Government policy.
Coun Hunt said: ”Choices have been made to design a system that is broken,” adding that putting cash in the pockets of the poor was one way to start dealing with poverty.
For further information about the Civic Breakfast contact Sheffield Church Action on Poverty chair, Dr Joe Forde, on joe.forde@tiscali.co.uk or 07854 109 670.
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The inaugural event in our Artists for Change programme took place in Manchester on 28 April 2024.
The city’s iconic Band On The Wall venue hosted an afternoon of music and storytelling about UK poverty. Performers included Lindsay Munroe, Matt Hill, Hannah Ashcroft, Duvet, and Loose Articles. We also displayed the Dreams & Realities exhibition, featuring portraits of people on the frontline of poverty.
Messages of hope for our future often ring true through music, art, poetry and theatre – and hope is needed in our communities, our towns and cities and across the country.
Artists for Change reflects the ongoing feeling across the country that what the government and opposition propose to tackle poverty simply is not good enough. If we want to see poverty in the UK ended, we need to see real, decisive action and community led change, listening to those in communities to hear what we have to say.
Artists for Change is a community of artists aware of our opportunity onstage, online and in written word to be part of a movement that challenges the status quo and believes that poverty in the UK can end.
Do you want to put on an event?
Do you want to be part of an event?
Do you want to get involved, but you’re not sure how?
If you’ve got an idea, we want to hear it!
God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth, while others live in abject deadening poverty.
———— Revd Dr Martin Luther King ————
Report’s purpose
This report is to be submitted to an Annual General Meeting, to be held on Monday 13 May at 1.00pm at the Urban Theology Union, Victoria Hall, Norfolk Street, Sheffield. It covers the period from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 (although it also contains some information on the Civic Breakfast that took place on 18 April 2024, as much of the enabling work for it was done in the 2023-24 year).
The national scene: restoring dignity, agency and power
At a national level, the year 2023-24 was, in some respects, a year of moving the focus onto campaigning, as we enter the run-up to the next General Election. Church Action on Poverty became a member of the nationally organised ‘Let’s End Poverty’ campaign. This is a diverse, growing movement of people who are united behind a vision for a UK where poverty can’t keep anyone down. Several events have been held via video conferencing, and a key focus has been on developing the best ways of influencing those in power, including our MPs.
Our Sheffield branch is committed to supporting this effort as part of the wider drive to improve the lives of those experiencing poverty in Sheffield and beyond. In this regard, in November 2023, our Chair published an article on the William Temple Foundation website that promoted the ‘Let’s End Poverty’ campaign. The article placed a particular focus on how the campaign might go about trying to secure support from the business sector for its aims and objectives. In some respects, it was the Chair’s reflections on the ‘Building Dignity, Agency and Power to End Poverty’ conference that was organised by national Church Action on Poverty, and held in Manchester in November 2023. Our Chair also attended a nationally organised Church Action on Poverty conference held in Leeds in July 2023, called ‘Dignity for All’, and published a follow-up article on the Modern Church website, which focused on the theme ‘Speaking Truth to Power.’
The local scene
In 2023, Sheffield’s branch of Church Action on Poverty moved its meeting place to the Urban Theology Union’s premises at Victoria Hall, Sheffield, and, as a token of its appreciation to UTU, it made a small donation to the value of £50. It also organised an Urban Poverty Pilgrimage, that took place on the South Side of Sheffield on 21 October 2023. Despite being held on a day that started out with heavy rain, 22 pilgrims made the journey, and a full report of the day was produced and circulated across social media, including the national Church Action on Poverty website. This year we vised:
- St James, Norton ― an Anglican church with interesting initiatives for young people and parents to be.
- The work of the Grace Food Bank, based at the Michael United Reformed Church, which provides help for people in need in Lowedges, Norton, Batemoor, Jordanthorpe and the surrounding areas.
- The Terminus Initiative ― a community project that provides support through volunteering, health & social groups, education, and a range of other mental and physical wellbeing and poverty relief interventions.
- The work of St Peter’s, Greenhill ― an Anglican church that supports a range of local initiatives, including providing School Pastors and the Makerspace project to help young people build confidence through practical hobbies and activities.
Our Chair was also interviewed by BBC local radio concerning this event. The interview was preceded by an article, co-written by our Chair and the Revd Dr Ian K Duffield from the Urban Theology Union and published on the national Church Action on Poverty website, which attempted to sketch out what a theology of Urban Poverty Pilgrimage might look like. This article attempted to offer a new starting point for a theological approach to an area of study that has had minimal work done on it. We all felt it was a worthwhile effort, and it set the scene for an enjoyable and informative day for all those who participated. We were pleased to be able to share examples of good practice in our follow-up report.
Branch members also attended events that focused on poverty in the city, including an excellent one organised by National CAP and held at St Mary’s Church, Bramall Lane, in March 2024. It included an exhibition of art works done by a resident of Sheffield, and a performance by a local community choir. Branch members also brought the poverty agenda to their local churches, to keep a spotlight on developments in the city around poverty and its causes and consequences.
Much of the second part of 2023-24 was spent on organising a Civic Breakfast, which took place at the Broomall Community Centre on 18 April. It was an opportunity to raise the profile of poverty in the city to key people of influence. One outcome is that members of our organising group and other invited guests, have been invited by Tom Hunt, leader of Sheffield City Council, to a meeting with him to discuss the points that were raised at the Civic Breakfast, and how best they might be taken forward. A useful summary of the Civic Breakfast outcomes was produced by Bob Rae, and is reproduced in full below.
Civic Breakfast summary
Sheffield Church Action on Poverty’s first Civic Breakfast since Covid has heard that around 120,000 people in Sheffield are living in poverty, homelessness is the worst it has ever been and city food banks could collapse if demand continues to increase.
The Civic Breakfast provides an opportunity for organisations working to address issues caused by poverty in the city to raise and expand understanding of their work and the issues involved and is attended by politicians, civic leaders, officials and faith leaders from Sheffield.
Guests saw a video, produced by Church Action on Povetry in Sheffield, showing the work of the Grace Food Bank in the Lowedges area of the city before hearing from the food bank’s chair Dr Jackie Butcher and Sheffield University Professor of Social Policy Alan Walker.
Prof Walker told Civic Breakfast guests, including Sheffield City Council leader Tom Hunt and Lord Mayor Colin Ross:
“During the cost of living crisis, more and more families fell into deep poverty. “It’s not a matter of juggling and budgeting – they simply don’t have enough money to make ends meet.”
Prof Walker said three out of four families in poverty were going without and three in five did not have enough money to buy the food they needed.
There were 120,000 people, including 28,000 children, living in absolute poverty in Sheffield in 2022-23, a 6,000 increase on 2021-22.
What’s more, 38,000 were living in destitution and 37,000 experiencing severe food insecurity – a 15,000 increase on 2021-22.
Prof Walker said there had been “an unprecedented attack” on the incomes of the poorest in Sheffield.
These included the month delay before Universal Credit begins being paid to claimants, the freezing of payment levels and the abolition of payments for more than two children.
To make matters worse, as poverty increased the government had simply changed the definition of poverty to disguise the rise.
“In Sheffield, 50,000 people are experiencing negative budgets, where more money is going out than coming in – and that is even if they claim all the benefits they are entitled to. A further 35,000 people are ‘running on empty’.”
“Government policies have a very important role to play in combating poverty. Benefit rates are too low. It’s a trap, it’s a systemic trap – and it can be changed.”
The Grace Food Bank’s Dr Butcher said demand had doubled between 2001 and 2023 and was still rising.
“If demand doubles again we won’t be able to cope,” she warned.
She derided claims that people could survive by shopping around and cooking meals themselves, pointing out that some food bank clients had, at best, just a kettle.
“People come to us because the system is broken. They can’t afford ‘stuff’, they can’t afford to make their home safe for a disabled child, they can’t afford to visit their child in hospital, they can’t afford to heat their home to deal with their COPD.
“We need the wholesale re-organisation of the system in this country.”
Tim Renshaw, chief executive of the Cathedral Archer Project, which provides support for the homeless in Sheffield, told guests:
“Homelessness has never been so bad. There are 865 households in temporary accommodation and 45 rough sleepers a night.”
Mr Renshaw described plans to use Public Space Protection Orders to move homeless people out of some areas as “an absolute red herring – a piece of political magical thinking.”
Sheffield City Council Labour Leader Tom Hunt praised local initiatives for trying to lift people out of poverty.
He stressed the Cost of Living Crisis had been going on for far longer than the recent price rises and was the result of Government policy.
Coun Hunt said: ”Choices have been made to design a system that is broken,” adding that putting cash in the pockets of the poor was one way to start dealing with poverty.
Finance update
At 31 March 2024 we had £1587.25 in the bank. This is after we had paid for the hire of the room for the Civic Breakfast, but not before we have paid for the catering for that event. We have a £25 deposit to be returned to us by Broomhall Community Centre.
Looking forward
We are conscious that we are a small group and that our average age is high. However, a small group can have an impact. As Margaret Mead, the famous anthropologist, said: “never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Nonetheless, there is a danger that, when the average age of a small group is high, it may not survive. In view of this, in the next year we plan to give attention to ways of increasing the size of our membership, as well as attracting some ‘younger blood’ into our team. We also intend to build on the examples of work that have been discussed in this report, whilst recognising that it is better for a small group to do a few things well, than to attempt to do a lot of things that may ‘fall over’, due to lack of inputs. We are also conscious that 2024 is a year when there will be a General Election, and we are aware of the need to focus on how best we can help to influence the political landscape. In addition, we are aware of the excellent work that is being done by the Poverty Truth Commission in Sheffield, and we will be inviting a representative from that Commission to speak at one of our future meetings.
Thank you
The Chair would like to record his thanks to all members of Sheffield’s Church Action on Poverty Group, for the work that they have done over this past year. In particular, Bob Rae’s work in making the film at Grace Food Bank stands out as a highlight for us all to be proud of. And Briony Broome’s excellent secretarial skills have meant that our administrative arrangements have been robust and assured. David Price and Sara Millard’s contributions to organising the Poverty Pilgrimage were also considerable and skilfully executed.
The key to this work is for it to be enjoyable and rewarding (we are all volunteers, after all). This means that we, as a Group, need to be mindful of our human and financial capacity, whilst not being unduly constrained by it.
Dr Joe Forde, Chair, Church Action on Poverty, Sheffield