THE TABLET

THE INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY FOUNDED IN 1840

END CHILD POVERTY

GOOD WORK FOR AN EASTER PEOPLE

It was on the third day that Almighty God turned death and defeat on Calvary into the victory of the empty tomb, an event the western Churches will joyously commemorate on Sunday. In many cases, however, this has become a solitary journey, with worshippers looking inside themselves as separate spiritual entities. Yet at his Last Supper, Jesus commanded “That you love one another, as I have loved you …” This means seeing Christ in others and caring for them accordingly. These are huge obligations. Individualism is a lighter yoke.

Rowntree Trust and the Larger Families research group. It is overwhelmingly clear that the government’s initial reasons for introducing it were fatuous. On the one hand people should only have the children they can afford, it was said, so the two-child cap should reduce the birth rate; on the other hand, reducing the birth rate would free up more women to return to the workforce earlier than otherwise in their child-bearing years.

Neither of these things has happened, nor indeed were they ever likely to. Nor was introducing a policy deliberately

The social component in the Easter Triduum journey was well known in the Middle Ages, when kings and queens emerged from their palaces on Holy Thursday – known as Maundy Thursday – to distribute vast largess to the poor. They got the message. “Maundy” comes from the Latin for commandment, mandatum, suggesting that the duty to the poor was regarded as central to the Easter story. Otherwise there is a danger of splitting what Christ called the two great commandments, “Love the Lord thy God” and “Love thy neighbour as thyself ”, into two separate compartments. It is clear from Scripture, Jewish and Christian, that these two commandments – as Jesus said, embracing the whole of the law and the prophets – depend entirely on each other. They should never be in tension. To neglect one is to neglect both.

Here is a perfect target: intervene in the name of justice and compassion to end the two-child benefits cap designed to further reduce the birth rate a good idea in itself. It is falling already for other reasons, and the population is steadily becoming top-heavy with too many retirees, and not enough workers.

This does not exhaust the charge sheet. The effect the two-child cap might have on the demand for abortion is obvious. Furthermore, the cap penalises all the children in a three-child or four-child family, as no parent is going to discriminate in how they care for a third or fourth child compared with their eldest two. And why should a woman who has a third or fourth child feel guilty about it? The very idea is preposterous. A child is a joyful gift from God, not a reason for regret or sorrow. And under the rules, a woman with a third child who can prove it was the result of rape can still claim the benefit. This only reinforces their absurdity.

If there is an imperative arising from Easter as Christ rose from the dead, it is towards the poor. It is a promise not only of redemption into eternal life – “Thy kingdom come” – but of relief from injustice and misery – “Thy will be done ... deliver us from evil” – in this one. As Pope Francis put it in one of his Lenten messages: “Indifference to our neighbour and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience.”

So what might the Catholic Church in Britain, or indeed anywhere, do to show it has heeded the voice of the prophets? Where are the poor, waiting to be fed, clothed, housed, comforted? Under our very noses, is the unhappy reply. It is estimated that in an average school classroom of 30 children, there will be nine who are living below the poverty line. It does not matter whether one party proposes to raise this to 10 or lower it to eight; on this scale, it is a scandal crying out to heaven for vengeance. In fact, the Conservatives have deliberately increased it, by capping child benefit at only the first two children. And Labour are complicit, by announcing that the two-child cap will stay if they win power.

So here is a perfect target for an intervention in the name of compassion and justice. A Church which took up this cause could not be accused of party political bias, as both the largest parties in Britain are equally guilty. The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), one of the major activist bodies dealing with such issues, estimates that lifting the two-child cap would raise a quarter of a million children out of poverty altogether and ease the lot of another 850,000.

There has been a great deal of research done on the effects of this cap by such bodies as the Resolution Foundation, the

Achurch-led attack on child poverty, with the twochild rule as its leading edge, would make a brilliant contribution to the debate ahead of this year’s general election. It would raise the whole issue of social justice, inequality and poverty – good work for an Easter People. The CPAG and the other trusts and foundations involved have done the spade-work. Their research is published and it is irrefutable. They have drawn up a long and reasonable shopping list of ways to relieve child poverty, and the abolition of the two-child rule is at the top. Getting rid of the pernicious “benefits cap” is next. Overdue reforms include lowering the rate at which deductions from Universal Credit are made for such things as utility bill arrears, and cutting the five-week wait before Universal Credit starts to arrive. And all such changes ought to form part of a national strategy for reducing child poverty and eventually eliminating it. Children are poor because society – through its elected government – has decided they should be. This is an issue where the Church can make a difference. People will not need much persuading that this is unacceptable. Once they are persuaded, the pressure on the main political parties and their leaders, directly and through the media, will become irresistible.

In his 2024 Lenten message, Pope Francis said this was a time for decisions – “decisions capable of altering the daily lives of individuals and entire neighbourhoods, such as the ways we acquire goods, care for Creation and strive to include those who go unseen or are looked down upon”. He invited every Christian community “to offer its members moments set aside to rethink their lifestyles, times to examine their presence in society and the contribution they make to its betterment”. What better time than Eastertide?

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