A recent report from a consortium of UK churches is busting
the most common myths about poverty – most of which can frequently be read in the
press.
They don’t want to work – actually most families in poverty
are working households. We have allowed wages to fall so low in this country that
many people can’t earn enough to feed themselves and their children.
They’re alcoholics and drug addicts - fewer than 4% of benefit claimants report any form
of addiction
They’re not really poor
they just don’t manage their money properly - statistics show that the poorest spend
their money carefully, limiting themselves to the essentials.
They’re fiddling benefits
- less than 0.9% of the welfare budget is lost to fraud: historically a very low
level. In fact, if everyone who is entitled to benefits actually claimed them
the system would be paying out £18 billion more than it currently does.
It’s an easy life on
benefits – in fact benefits do not cover minimum income standards and have halved
in relation to average incomes over the last 30 years.
Read this excellent
report in full at: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/files/truth_and_lies_report_final.pdf
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