A church report has condemned the benefits sanctions scheme imposed by the UK's Department of Work and Pensions as "punitive, inhumane and un-Christian".
The criticism comes after findings pointed to the unjust withdrawal of benefits for claimants for weeks at a time, sometimes even stretching years.
Concerns are raised in a report from the Church of Scotland, the Church in Wales, the Methodist Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the United Reformed Church, and the Church Action on Poverty.
The report claimed that the sanctions were being doled out for even the most trivial offenses as a means of cutting welfare costs and not because claimants had violated the terms of their benefits.
Barry Morgan, the Archbishop of Wales said: "The findings of this report are disturbing. It exposes a system that is harsh in the extreme, penalising the most vulnerable of claimants by the withdrawal of benefits for weeks at a time."
The Churches said that the current system, instead of helping people find work and assisting them, has been instrumental in making them even more destitute.
"Most people in this country would be shocked if they knew that far from providing a safety net, the benefit sanctions policy is currently making thousands of people destitute. This policy must be reviewed urgently," Niall Cooper, director of the charity Church Action on Poverty said.
The report cited one million people whose benefits were withheld due to sanctions and warned that the new Universal Credit scheme would be even more of a challenge as it would affect even those in the low income brackets who are still receiving benefits.
It further called for a review of the system and the immediate suspension of sanctions against claimants who are mentally ill or have dependent children.
"While the churches accept that all social-security systems must have a measure of conditionality, the punishments imposed by the government regime are disproportionately harsh," it said.
