Want to know how Rachel Reeves’s poverty tax spits in the eye of the United Nations?

It seems the UN urged the UK’s Labour government to raise benefits, rather than cut them, and also to scrap the two-child limit on child benefits – because current policies infringe our human rights.

Here‘s The Big Issue to explain:

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) issued a series of recommendations to tackle poverty in the UK on Monday (3 March) after grilling a delegation from across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on the issue last month.

In response, UN experts raised serious concerns about the UK government’s failure to uphold human rights across the country. That included fears over the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) welfare reforms that have resulted in severe economic hardship, increased reliance on food banks, homelessness, negative impacts on mental health and the stigmatisation of benefit claimants.

The DWP was urged to up spending on benefits, remove the benefit cap and scrap the two-child limit, which prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for more than two children.

As a benefit recipient, I very much enjoyed the DWP’s response to this:

A DWP spokesperson said: “No one should be living in poverty – that’s why our ministerial taskforce is exploring all available levers across government to give every child the best start in life as part of our Plan for Change.

“As we fix the foundations of the economy, we’re increasing the Living Wage, uprating benefits and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families with children by introducing a fair repayment rate on universal credit deductions to help low-income households and make everyone better off.”

“No one should be living in poverty, is it?”

I ran out of money at the end of last week, when I used what I had left to buy (hopefully) enough food and energy to last until I get paid again – if I ration myself.

I have either five days or a week to go, depending on how fast the system works this month.

And the reason I ran out is that I had to pay for dental work and then claim it back – and UC has yet to refund that money.

I also – bitterly – enjoyed the comment by Jess McQuail, director of Just Fair – a charity working to defend economic, social, and cultural rights in the UK: “The UK government presents itself as a global leader in human rights, but these findings tell a different story.”

Not only these findings!

The UN has been appealing to the UK to change its policy on human rights – particularly those of benefit claimants – for years.

In 2017, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities published a report criticizing the UK government’s failure to uphold the rights of disabled people across various areas, including social security.

The Tory government of the day dismissed it, claiming the UK had an excellent human rights record.

And the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Professor Philip Alston, conducted a visit to the United Kingdom in November 2018.

In his subsequent report, he criticized the UK government’s policies, stating that they had led to the “systematic immiseration of a significant part of the British population,” including disabled people – and he blamed the DWP.

Then-Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd claimed she was going to lodge a formal complaint with the UN, saying Alston was politically biased and did not do enough research after he compared her department’s welfare policies to the creation of Victorian workhouses.

But there is no clear public record confirming that such a formal complaint was officially submitted.

You can see that the UN has tried many times to encourage the UK to restore its human rights record, and that the UK’s reputation on human rights is not what its government has been claiming – nor has it been, for many years.

Given the responses of the Tory governments of the past, and Rachel Reeves’s apparent plans now, we can draw our own conclusions about how the Labour government will respond.

Did I write “Labour”?

If it looks like a Tory and acts like a Tory…

Source: DWP should increase benefits and scrap two-child limit, UN says – Big Issue

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