Methodist President fears spending cuts will increase burden on the poor

The President of the Methodist Conference has spoken of her concern for the poor ahead of the release of the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review on Wednesday.

The review is expected to outline substantial cuts across many government departments and usher in an “age of austerity” to slash Britain’s budget deficit.

Addressing a rally organised by the Trade Union Congress today, the Rev Alison Tomlin warned that the poor could be hit hard by the cuts.

“The past ten to fifteen years of boom benefited some sections of society but not the poorest. Relatively their income went down. Justice or, to use that popular word, ‘fairness’ demand that they do not suffer now during the bust," she said.

Tomlin promised to hold the Government to account after Communities Secretary Eric Pickles invited people to judge the government according to their treatment of the most vulnerable.

Tomlin continued: “The task the Government has set itself of cutting the deficit to zero in a short space of time, while not harming the most vulnerable, is a difficult one, some may say an impossible one. We shall wait and see but the initial signs are not promising.”

She said that many people engaged in community projects were fearing for the future of their work.

“They will rightly be wondering about the meaning of the phrase ‘Big Society’," she said.

The warning comes in spite of the announcement last week by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg that the Government would be allocating £7bn to support poor families.

The ‘fairness premium’ includes 15 hours of free nursery education a week for two-year-olds in the poorest 20 per cent of families and financial support for school and university students.

The fund has been welcomed by poverty charities although there are still fears it will not be enough to help the poorest families get by in the face of wide ranging cuts.

Liam Purcell, of Church Action on Poverty said: “We fear that it will not be enough to counter the damage likely to be done to people and communities by the coming cuts in public spending.

“The impact of those cuts will be ten times greater for people in poverty than for the wealthy people who caused this economic crisis in the first place.”