SUFFOLK’S highest-ranking clergyman is calling for changes to a welfare bill due to be debated in Parliament today, which he says could leave vulnerable children in poverty.

The Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich says research by the Children’s Society shows youngsters could suffer as a result of the proposals in the Welfare Reform Bill, which would stop households from claiming any more than �500 a week in benefits to prevent state handouts exceeding the average weekly wage.

The Right Reverend Nigel Stock is one of 18 bishops who wrote a letter to a national newspaper yesterday calling on the Government to take on board some of the amendments tabled by the Bishop of Leeds and Ripon, John Packer, to be debated in the House of Lords today.

These include removing child benefit from household income when calculating the weekly cap, exempting certain vulnerable groups from the cap, and introducing a grace period for families in which people have only recently left employment to give time to find another job.

Bishop Nigel said: “The Church has a duty to speak up for the most vulnerable, who often do not have a voice.

“We realise the Government has a huge and difficult responsibility and has the best interests of people at heart, but it is the unintentional consequences we are concerned about.

“I also understand resources are limited and we are in a recession, but we would like to see some protection for our most vulnerable children.

“I think the best solution is that some of these amendments are taken forward.”

The bishops who signed the letter also include those from the dioceses of Bath and Wells, Blackburn, Bristol, Chichester, Derby, Exeter, Gloucester, Guildford, Leicester, Lichfield, London, Manchester, Norwich, Oxford, Ripon and Leeds, Truro and Wakefield.

They quote research by the Children’s Society which found the cap could affected up to 210,000 children, and potentially leave 80,000 homeless.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “It simply isn’t fair that households on out-of-work benefits can receive a greater income from the state than the average working household gets in wages.

“This is why we have proposed a benefit cap of around �500 per week for couple and single parent households – that’s the equivalent of a salary of �35,000 a year before tax.”