Society must take care of those who cannot work €“ Archbishop

The Archbishop of Wales has hit out at the Government over its rhetoric on benefit fraud.

Dr Barry Morgan said that those who are genuinely unable to work should be taken care of by the Government, instead of being accused of workshy.

He said: “The Government talks about benefit frauds as if the country is full of people who are out to milk the system.

“There are people who genuinely cannot work and if the State cannot take care of them in a proper way, then the whole society is damaged and diminished.

“There are enough psychological effects of not going to work every day, of not being able to provide for your children, without being accused as well of being people who are workshy.”

He spoke of the importance of community, working together and looking after one another as he warned that worse benefit cuts were still to come. Job losses, he added, would be inevitable.

The Archbishop’s criticism follows a letter from Christian leaders to the Government last week, accusing it of “stigmatising” the poor.

They accused the Chancellor of conflating the figures on benefit fraud during his speech announcing the Comprehensive Review, when he claimed that £5bn was lost each year to benefit fraud. They said the real figure was closer to around £1bn.

“Our experience of working in deprived communities is that life on benefits is often a struggle, with difficult and stressful financial choices being a daily occurrence,” they said.

“We believe this reality is not well reflected in Government statements and needs to be at the heart of any debate on welfare reform.”