Meeting for Sufferings: Government cuts
Government cuts and welfare reform produced a very lively afternoon session at Meeting for Sufferings
The subject of government cuts and welfare reform produced a very lively afternoon session, with many contributors drawing on individual experience. A Friend reflected on his experience of working in a Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in London. He talked of the experiences of those people who were now, increasingly, seeking help and of the damaging effect that cuts were having on their relationships and their way of life.
He spoke of John Woolman and of the social profile of Quakers in Britain. Friends were not, generally, badly affected by the worst effects of the cuts.
The difficulty of addressing the subject without talking politics was pointed out.
A Friend from Kent said how incredibly well people were managing. In Canterbury, she said, forty-five per cent of children live in poverty and seventy-five per cent are on free school meals in some schools. Yet their parents ‘turn them out’ for school very well every day.
Another Friend, from a provincial city, revealed that at her local CAB office she had seen people, coming in, in tears. The subject of a ‘living wage’, a ‘citizens income’, the need for Quakers to have a higher profile, government ‘doublespeak’, the link with sustainability and the inappropriateness of phrases such as ‘lifestyle choice’ were also raised. Many people, a Friend said, had part time jobs and want to work full time. It pays employers, he explained, to have workers on four-hour shifts.
Quakers were urged to consider the way they lived their lives and to embrace and promote alternative ideas and options, such as cooperative living, and also to recognise that not all welfare reforms are ‘coming from the same place’.
A Friend was very concerned that the public profile of Quakers on this issue did not seem to be as high as other faith groups. It was a concern, she said, that was deeply felt by other faiths. Someone else added that he would like the Society to ‘be as visible on this issue as it has been over same sex marriage.’
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