Open letter appeals to Duncan Smith’s religious convictions in an effort to persuade him to reverse his austerity-inspired welfare reforms

More than 70 leading Catholics have written to Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, who is Catholic, to tell him they fear the impact of his welfare reform policies.

In an open letter the group, led by the thinktanks Ekklesia and the Centre for Welfare Reform, calls on Duncan Smith to redraft his policies “in a way that is more compatible with Catholic and Christian values.”

They highlight benefit sanctions, work capability assessments, the benefits cap and the scheme to incorporate all benefits in a single system of universal credit as policies that are worsening the situation of poor families up and down the country.

“We understand that your Catholic faith is important to you, and your approach is driven by a desire to improve the quality of individual lives,” the letter says.

“However, we believe that [your policies] are in fact doing the reverse. We would urge you to rethink and to abandon further cuts which are likely to cause more damage.”

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Duncan Smith was the first Catholic leader of the Conservative party between 2001 and 2003. In 2010 he was named one of Britain’s most influential Catholics. Since his appointment at the head of the Department for Work and Pensions that year, he has led a radical reorganisation of Britain’s benefits system to ensure “work always pays more”.

But he has faced criticism from campaigners who say that cuts to benefits have led to suicides, an increase in poverty and the social cleansing of wealthier areas, particularly in London and the south-east.

In just the past week Duncan Smith has come under fire for proposing to scrap child poverty targets. Last month he was attacked for refusing to publish statistics showing the number of people who have died after having their benefits cut. It has since emerged than Duncan Smith was among 19 MPs who had their official credit cards suspended for failing to show spending was valid.

The letter, published on Friday, appeals to Duncan Smith’s religious convictions in an effort to persuade him to reverse his austerity-inspired welfare reforms.

Pointing to a Depression-era papal encyclical which denounced “the huge disparity between the few exceedingly rich and the unnumbered propertyless”, it calls on Duncan Smith to enter a dialogue over how to support those less fortunate.

“We have constructive proposals on how to make our welfare system work better, and in a way that is more compatible with Catholic and Christian values,” it says.

Signatories include the author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce, academic historian Sir Tom Devine, OBE, author and former Catholic David Lodge, the theologians Professor Mary Grey and Professor Tina Beattie, the Union of Catholic Mothers, as well as a number of other academics, writers and parish priests.

Virginia Moffatt, chief operating officer of Ekklesia, was one of the letter’s co-authors. She said: “We thought long and hard about writing an open letter to Iain Duncan Smith. As a way of trying to influence government policy, this method would certainly not be our first choice. We believe in focusing on policies, not politicians. But we also believe we have now reached the position where to appeal to Mr Duncan Smith as an individual, and to make a strong public show of concern, is necessary.”

A DWP spokesman said: “The benefits system we inherited in 2010 was broken, frequently trapping the very people it was meant to help in a state of welfare dependency.

“Our reforms are restoring fairness to the system – for claimants as well as the taxpayer. We have maintained a valuable safety net for those that need it, while also ensuring that people who can work are given the skills and opportunities to get a job.”