Government Moves Its “Faith-Based Welfare” Agenda Further Forward
Without any fanfare, indeed, almost furtively, the Government has pushed its “faith-based welfare programme” a step further. A press release from the Department for Work and Pensions quotes the Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform, Jim Murphy, as saying: “I want to see a greater role for faith based groups in UK welfare delivery. If we are to successfully tackle problems like poverty, long-term unemployment and benefit dependency then we need to ensure that people have access to the services and support that the welfare state offers. I believe that faith based groups offer an invaluable link into communities and individuals who may at first be reluctant or unsure of how to engage with the state and the programmes that are there to help them. What I want to do now, is see how we can take this further.”
Mr Murphy mentions the work of the Salvation Army in glowing terms, but a report from the New York Civil Liberties Union indicates that the Salvation Army in America is introducing religious discrimination into its service provision. The report says: “The Salvation Army has recently begun to require all New York City employees, and prospective job applicants, to identify their present church affiliation and minister’s name as well as all other churches attended in the previous decade. Moreover, recently developed job descriptions and new job application forms, appear to require that employees “preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ” and to thereby profess their belief in Christianity. The Salvation Army claims an exemption from anti-discrimination laws because it is a church.” (Read more here.)
As we reported in Newsline on 5th January, the National Secular Society has asked the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee, in the context of its enquiry into the meaning of ‘public authority’, to recommend clarifying the law to ensure that when a public body delegates functions such as “faith based welfare” to a private body, the latter is subject to a duty not to act in a way which is incompatible with human rights. NSS Vice president, Dr Anna Behan, said: “Faith based welfare is being promoted by both Labour and Conservatives and is likely to grow massively in the next few years. Unless a change of the sort we advocate is made, vulnerable people will be put at risk if providers who deliver outsourced services financed with public funds disregard the human rights implications of the way they deliver their services. If those providers include religious organisations which refuse on grounds of ‘conscience’ to ensure that delivery is made in a non-discriminatory manner, we fear that those whose belief or sexuality does not ‘fit in’ with the ethos of the provider may suffer.”
Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, said: “As we feared, the Government is stepping up the pressure to hand over public services to religious groups, but despite warnings it does not appear to be taking sufficient account of the risks to Human Rights that such a move invites. We call on the Government to make specific commitments to ensure that religious groups cannot use public money to discriminate in service provision or employment.”
Mr Wood added “As we found during the passage through Parliament of the Education and Inspections Act 2006, religious groups successfully demanded ‘faith schools’ exemptions from employment law bans on discrimination. Such developments in other welfare services should be nipped in the bud”.
