By Julian Whittle

Last updated at 12:19, Monday, 11 March 2013

The Bishop of Carlisle is calling on the Government to rethink its welfare reforms.

The Rt Rev James Newcome

The Rt Rev James Newcome was one of 43 Church of England bishops to sign a letter to The Sunday Telegraph saying that proposed benefit cuts will have a “deeply disproportionate” impact on children.

The Welfare Benefits Uprating Bill, to be debated by the Lords this week, will limit benefit increases to one per cent in each of the next three years, however much prices rise.

The bishops’ letter says: “This is a change that will have a deeply-disproportionate impact on families with children, pushing 200,000 children into poverty.

“A third of all households will be affected by the Bill, but nearly nine-out-of-10 families with children will be hit.”

The new Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, and the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, are backing the bishops’ stance.

The letter is a setback for the Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, who is steering the welfare reforms through Parliament.

The bishops’ intervention has drawn a stinging response from one of Cumbria’s senior Conservative politicians.

Councillor James Airey, who sits in Cumbria County Council’s ruling cabinet, tweeted: “I wish the bishops would keep their left-wing nonsense to themselves. No wonder the Church has become so unpopular and irrelevant.”

Bishop James has campaigned against fuel poverty in Cumbria. In October 2011 he spent the night at Dove Cottage, William Wordsworth’s former home in Grasmere, to highlight the issue of cold housing. And last October he launched Cumbria Community Foundation’s winter warmth fund, to provide grants to pensioners struggling to heat their homes.

First published at 11:41, Monday, 11 March 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk