Budgeting a “missed opportunity”, say Catholic groups

The 2021 budget has received a mixed response from Catholic and other Christian groups, as new spending commitments have failed to fill the void left by the withdrawal of pandemic-era measures, according to several. Non-profit organizations.

The rejection of family-friendly tax reforms proposed by a coalition of Catholic organizations earlier this month also drew criticism, with the Catholic Union of Britain calling the rejection of the plans a “missed opportunity.”

A Catholic commentator hailed the combination of high taxes and high government spending in the budget as the “death of Thatcherism.” Clifford Longley, former counselor of the Catholic Bishops‘ Conference of England and Wales, said in The tablet that promise to return to a low tax system were “empty”, with the total tax burden continuing to exceed that of any government since the 1940s.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s announcement of an increase in the national minimum wage was welcomed by the The debt helps the Christians Against Poverty (CAP) charity, which has said the budget announcements on revenues were ‘good news’ despite the £ 20 cut in the base universal credit rate.

But the increase in the cost of living, warned CAP’s director of external affairs, Gareth McNab, “will quickly exceed these increases in income, as inflation hits those with the lowest incomes hard.” Without action to improve the situation of segments of the population particularly affected by the pandemic, such as the unemployed, the disabled, carers and single parents, “many will be left behind”.

The Children’s Society, a Church of England affiliate charity, has joined in criticism of the budget: some new funding has been “n‘close enough to offset years of declining spending on children’s services’.

The government’s ‘Family Package’, worth around £ 500million in new funding, includes the creation of ‘family centers’ in 75 local authorities and additional support for parents with mental health problems .

Although the budget provides additional funding of £ 200million for ‘most vulnerable’ families, the Children’s Society said in a statement it was’ extremely disappointed with the lack of commitment to improving the lives of families in financial crisis ”- pointing to the upcoming closure of the household support fund in March 2022.

International charity Christian Aid attacked what they described as “further cuts to the UK’s aid budget”. The government’s designation of the UK’s vaccine contribution and IMF Special Drawing Rights as part of the aid budget amounted to a cut of billions in real terms, they warned. Christian Aid argued that, in a global context of famine and flooding, this decision amounted to a “betrayal of the most marginalized people in the world”.