A UN committee on incapacity rights has criticised the UK authorities’s welfare reforms, saying they may “increase poverty rates”.
In an intervention more likely to be seized on by MPs searching for to additional water down the measures, the committee asks ministers for solutions on 10 points surrounding the profit adjustments – and says the reforms danger “regression” for disabled folks.
The committee, which studies to the Workplace of the Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights, asks about British politicians suggesting individuals are defrauding the advantages system.
Picture:
Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on the launch of the 10-year well being plan in east London. Pic: PA
One level on which it needs clarification is: “Public statements by politicians and authorities portraying persons with disabilities as making profit of social benefits, making false statements to get social and disability benefits or being a burden to society.”
Different questions are on the impression the measures may have on “young persons, new claimants of disability benefits, women with disabilities, persons with disabilities with high level supports” and others.
They ask ministers about what measures they’ve taken to handle “the foreseeable risk of increasing poverty rates amongst persons with disabilities if cuts are approved” and declare the welfare invoice has had “limited scrutiny”.
The letter claims that the committee has “received credible information” that the Common Credit score and Private Impartial Cost Invoice “will deepen the signs of regression” that the committee warned about in a report final yr on the price of dwelling disaster and its impression on disabled folks.
An intervention by the UN will probably be a humiliation to the federal government, which has promised its welfare reforms will assist disabled folks into work.
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Liz Kendall, the welfare secretary, was criticised closely earlier within the yr for saying some folks on advantages have been “taking the mickey”.
After a chaotic first vote in Parliament on 1 July, by which MPs succeeded in watering down the reforms considerably, the federal government now says its reforms will elevate 50,000 folks out of poverty. The invoice was backed by 335 MPs, with 260 towards – a majority of 75.
The primary model of the reforms would have – the federal government’s evaluation mentioned – pushed 250,000 folks into poverty.
Charities are urging MPs to proceed to push for additional adjustments – together with on cuts to Common Credit score illness funds.
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Labour welfare insurgent needs ‘respect’
A unique UN committee closely criticised profit adjustments made by the Conservatives in 2016 and referred to as on the UK to take “corrective measures” when Labour got here into workplace.
The UN’s committee on Financial, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) concluded that “welfare reform” measures launched by Conservative-led governments in 2012 and 2016 had disproportionately affected disabled folks, low-income households, and employees in “precarious employment”.
The committee mentioned this had led to “severe economic hardship, increased reliance on food banks, homelessness, negative impacts on mental health, and the stigmatisation of benefit claimants”.
The Division for Work and Pensions has been contacted for remark.
Mikey Erhardt, coverage lead at Incapacity Rights UK, mentioned: “The fact that the UN has yet again felt it needs to write to the UK government about our cruel and punitive social security system should be a national shame.
“We hope this letter is a wake-up name for MPs. Regardless of all of the chaos of the last-minute climbdowns and concessions, the Common Credit score invoice stays damaged.
“There are still billions of cuts on the table, and we urge MPs to approach tomorrow’s proceedings with caution as their vote will have serious implications for disabled people across the country.
“If disabled folks really feel unable to belief the federal government’s guarantees on co-production and the UN wanted to lift issues over the invoice’s impression, how can MPs vote this invoice via?”
