{"id":6252,"date":"2015-10-13T14:06:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-13T13:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=6252"},"modified":"2015-10-14T16:46:29","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T15:46:29","slug":"when-the-archbishops-say-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=6252","title":{"rendered":"When the archbishops say no"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

First it was Conservative MPs David Davis and Steven McPartland. Then it was The Sun<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c long the mouthpiece of the Tory party. And now this week, former leaders of the Anglican Church – historically supporters of Conservative policies – have slammed the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cuts to working tax credits.<\/p>\n

 
\nLord Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury until 2002, recounted to the Mirror on Sunday<\/a> (October 11) his experiences in low-paid work, and how he was supported by the state.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI well remember as a young and poorly paid clergyman needing the help of the state in the form of family income support,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\n“My wife and I would have struggled to provide for our family without it,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. “I support the aim of the government to make work pay and put in place a reasonable cap on welfare payments.<\/p>\n

 
\n“But I urge the government to reconsider these particular cuts to working tax credits that will hit many hardworking families very hard indeed.”<\/p>\n

 
\nLord Carey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comments echoed his successor Lord Williams, who also came out against cuts to tax credits<\/a> in an interview with the Sun.<\/p>\n

 
\nNo proper security<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\n“There should be no debate about the aim of getting more people into employment. But it won’t do to organise the system so that employment brings no advantages and no proper security for working people and their children.<\/p>\n

 
\n“I don’t think this is a party political issue,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt ought to be agreed common sense and compassion.”<\/p>\n

 
\nComments from the former heads of the Anglican Church follow a surprise campaign by The Sun<\/em><\/a> calling on chancellor George Osborne to put an end to cuts in tax credits. As the paper launched the campaign, it called the tax credit cuts \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbonkers\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\nIf the cuts go through, more than lower-paid households will lose out on an average of \u00c2\u01411000 a year, according to a recent report.<\/a><\/p>\n

 
\nThe government has justified these cuts by arguing that a higher minimum wage, set to go up to \u00c2\u01419 an hour by 2020, will counteract any cuts to tax credits.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut the same report notes that for low-income families to feel any benefit from the changes to tax and benefits, the minimum wage would have to go up to nearly \u00c2\u014112 an hour now.<\/p>\n

 
\nFamilies who will be effected by tax credit cuts, should they come into force, will receive notices just before Christmas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gathering momentum<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner argued that Lord Carey and Lord Williams\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 most recent comments against tax credit cuts demonstrates the momentum gathering against the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s austerity regime.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLord Carey and his successor Lord Williams are not your usual ardent supporters of the welfare state,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner noted.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut they, along with many other Conservative-minded figureheads, are coming out against one of the most vicious cuts in a generation. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because they know what we all know \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that slashing \u00c2\u01414.4bn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth of tax credits is a vindictive assault on low-income families.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Tory leadership says it wants to make work pay,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut if you look at the details in their budget, cuts to tax credits actually create a disincentive to work.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe only conclusion that can be drawn from this government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard-line austerity agenda is that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re ideologically motivated by greed; that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re driven by their paymasters in the City, who will gladly decimate low-income households so that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have some extra cash on top of their already sky-high mountain of millions; and that their contempt for working families knows no bounds.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not too late to reverse these cuts,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner went on to say. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe call on the government to listen not only to their opponents – but also those who are often their natural allies – to stop this assault on the working poor and come up with sensible policies that actually help grow the economy instead of choking it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First it was Conservative MPs David Davis and Steven McPartland. Then it was The Sun \u00e2\u20ac\u201c long the mouthpiece of the Tory party. And now this week, former leaders of the Anglican Church – historically supporters of Conservative policies – have slammed the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cuts to working tax credits.   Lord Carey, the Archbishop of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[265,409],"wps_subtitle":"Two ex-church leaders slam Tory tax credits slash","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6252"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6290,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6252\/revisions\/6290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}