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 looking for to additional water down the measures, the committee asks ministers for solutions on 10 points surrounding the profit modifications – and says the reforms threat “regression” for disabled folks.
The committee, which stories 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 desires 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 affect the measures could 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 Unbiased Fee 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 affect on disabled folks.
An intervention by the UN will likely 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, during which MPs succeeded in watering down the reforms considerably, the federal government now says its reforms will carry 50,000 folks out of poverty. The invoice was backed by 335 MPs, with 260 in opposition to – 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 modifications – together with on cuts to Common Credit score illness funds.
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A unique UN committee closely criticised profit modifications made by the Conservatives in 2016 and known 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.
The Common Credit score and Private Unbiased Fee Invoice returns to the Commons on Wednesday for its remaining levels.
Mikey Erhardt, coverage lead at Incapacity Rights UK, mentioned: “The truth that the UN has but once more felt it wants to jot down to the UK authorities about our merciless and punitive social safety system ought to be a nationwide disgrace.
“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 nonetheless billions of cuts on the desk, and we urge MPs to method tomorrow’s proceedings with warning as their vote could have severe implications for disabled folks throughout the nation.
“If disabled people feel unable to trust the government’s promises on co-production and the UN needed to raise concerns over the bill’s impact, how can MPs vote this bill through?”
