Dear David Cameron,
It took me over half an hour to complete my 7 minute journey into the church I serve today, you may wonder why I am telling you this, the reason is simple, because of extensive repairs and updating being carried out to Blackpool's road system there are lots of delays, and some are unexpected. I am telling you this because when I arrived at church I met a man I will call Mike, Mike comes to our drop in, he is friendly and would love to be hardworking. Today he came for a food parcel, he needed to leave early to appear in court, he had been caught shoplifting.
Now I know that shoplifting is a crime but I need you to understand Mike's circumstances. Four weeks ago Mike boarded a bus into town, it is usually a 10 minute journey and he had left himself plenty of time to get in, but a mixture of the roadworks and an accident meant that Mike's journey took him 45 minutes, he was 10 minutes late for his appointment at the Job Centre. Mike has been sanctioned until the 2nd March. He stole £7.50's worth of food from a local supermarket for the simple reason that he was starving, he had not eaten for 4 days. He had been unwell and missed our drop in and had no food, desperation drove him to do what he did, he was in tears as he told me his story.
What I want to know is this, how can you say that you are "giving unemployed Britons “new hope and responsibility” by cutting their benefit payments and claiming that your welfare reforms are part of a “moral mission” for the country."
This man does not feel hope he feels despair, if he were a hardened criminal I think he would have taken much more than £7.50's worth of food don't you? He hates what he has done and had no intention of pleading anything but guilty, he has no solicitor but was hoping that he would be heard when he asked for mercy. He is alone in Blackpool, his parents live over 50 miles away and might as well be on the moon as far as Mike is concerned, his friends are in similar predicaments to him so he did not want to ask them for help.
I wish you could or would come to our drop in, the folk who come are not the scum of the earth, nor are many of them responsible for their situation in any way other than the fact that life has dealt them a hard blow. Over the years they have become our friends and we love and respect them just as they love and respect us. We see many go on with love and encouragement to rent flats and begin to sort their lives out. Mike has a flat but is fearful that a fine will land him back on the streets.
I have to say that I agree with the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, who said recent changes had left many in “hunger and destitution”. He has also said that "it was clear that welfare reform is “necessary” and “difficult” adding: “I [am] sure that these things were unintended consequences of this attempt to reform.
“What I notice in Government statements is that they are mostly cast in the future tense: 'these reforms will achieve this, will achieve that’.
“My concern is to echo the voices that come to me of the circumstances today in which people are left without any support for weeks on end, are hungry, are destitute.
“There must be something wrong with the administration of a system which has that effect on so many people’s lives.”
I agree with him, in fact I would go further, I believe the administration of this system is cruel and inhumane. Mike was told he should have called to say he would be late, he couldn't do that he had no credit on his phone. He was told he should have got off the bus and used a phone box, but again he could not do that as he did not have money to make a call, he had borrowed the money for the bus fare, the night before he had spent his last £5.00 on heating. Four days later he was driven to shoplift, a loaf of bread, 2 pints of milk, some chicken and some beans, just enough to tide him over until he could get to the drop in.
I wish Mikes story was unusual, it isn't, today we gave a food parcel to a young couple, she is 28 weeks pregnant, for the last 2 days he has gone without food so that she and the baby would remain fed. I can tell you many many other stories of people who are being pushed beyond the brink of hope, of people who have contemplated suicide of people who feel rejected and abandoned. The system is not working for them, they don't feel the hope or responsibility you speak of. Frankly your "moral mission" looks entirely immoral from where I stand.
Just before we are accused of being a bunch of bleeding hearts, we are not, we are on the whole realistic, we encourage people to make good decisions and to think about their lifestyles and how they spend their money, but when people are made to survive on nothing, or as in the case of one man on £11.50 per fortnight good decisions do not stretch far enough. Each week our drop in grows, more and more people in need come to us, but they don't stay as they are, some of our clients are now volunteers, some have become valued members of our church community, they have found hope and are taking responsibility not because they have been squeezed and punished but because they have discovered the inclusive love of God who does not sanction or discard them. People need encouragement and acceptance if they are to find hope and take responsibility, the current system does nothing to bring these things about.
Yours in frustration
Rev. Sally Coleman
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