A Welfare System for the 21st Century:

How compassionate are the new welfare reforms?

Iain Duncan Smith MP Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Date: Wed 23 March 2011

Time:  7.00pm – 9.00pm (doors open 6.30pm)

Location: Oasis Centre, London, SE1 7HS

Tickets: £6

Run in partnership with Charities Parliament

Iain Duncan Smith MP claims Britain's current benefits system is broken, unaffordable and has been trapping poor people in poverty.  He believes his new Welfare Reform Bill will radically simplify the benefits system and, in the process, eradicate the work-disincentives that create unemployment and poverty. (Click here to view the white paper.) In contrast, critics claim that there will be just as many losers as winners from his reforms, among them being many of the poorest and most vulnerable in society.

Welfare reform is a complex subject but at its heart it poses profound moral questions that are open to everyone.

What duty do we owe to one another? Should we - can we - draw a distinction between the deserving and the undeserving poor? How compassionate are the new reforms? How compassionate should they be?

Join Theos and the Charities Parliament as we explore the moral and practical implications of the biggest change to our welfare system in a decade.

To book your place, click here.