Benefit changes risk driving more children and families into poverty, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned. The BBC reports that Justin Welby said society had a duty to support the "vulnerable and in need". In response the Department for Work and Pensions said changing the system will help get people "into work and out of poverty". The Welfare Reform Bill is due to be debated in the House of Lords next week. Bishops in the Lords have tabled an amendment that would make child-related benefits exempt from the changes.
The parents of a teenager who took his own life days after being arrested on suspicion of drink-driving and kept in a police cell overnight, have launched a petition calling for 17-year-olds in police custody to be treated as children. Nick and Jane Lawton said they only found out that their son Joe had been arrested following his death. Under the law 17-year-olds are treated as adults while in police custody, meaning their parents or an “appropriate adult” do not have to be contacted. More than 35,000 people have signed the petition.
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