The National Audit Office has shown there is no evidence that benefit sanctions help people to find work. We’re asking all our supporters to email their MPs and call for a review of this harmful system. Andrew Pratt has been inspired by this to write a hymn.
We hear of people sanctioned,
made poor by bad intent,
for selfishness is ruling
infecting government;
we see the children suffer
while parents are distressed,
what is there we can offer,
our nation seems bereft?
How can we counter hatred,
for this is what it seems,
when those with little favour
have even lost their dreams?
Their hope has been diminished,
their future filled with dread
while words of Christian kindness
seem wizened, shrivelled, dead.
Christ called to loving action:
to stand beside the poor,
to challenge each injustice
to keep an open door;
but politics has trampled
the love that he would share
and grace will come to nothing
if we just stand and stare.
© Andrew Pratt, 8 December2016
Tune: AURELIA
Click here to email your MP and call for a full review of the sanctions system
