“The policies in place are not working or not protecting people in poverty, and much more needs to be done for these people to be protected.”
The UK government is in breach of international law over failing to tackle extreme levels of poverty and destitution in the country, according to a scathing assessment made by the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
It comes after the Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently released a report showing that almost 4 million people experienced destitution in 2022, including more than a million children.
Government data recently revealed that 14.4 million people lived in relative poverty in 2021-22 – a million more than the previous year.
With a cost of living crisis and soaring food and fuel prices as well as increasing housing costs, Olivier De Schutter, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, slammed the UK’s woefully inadequate welfare system, citing research showing universal credit payments of £85 a week for single adults over 25 were “grossly insufficient” and described the UK’s main welfare system as “a leaking bucket”.
In exclusive comments to the Guardian, De Schutter said: “It’s simply not acceptable that we have more than a fifth of the population in a rich country such as the UK at risk of poverty today.
“The policies in place are not working or not protecting people in poverty, and much more needs to be done for these people to be protected.”
He highlighted how the UK had signed an international agreement that created a duty to provide a level of social protection which ensured an adequate standard of living, however it was being broken as a result of cuts to social welfare payments, which resulted in more people being pushed into poverty.
“If you look at the price of housing, electricity, the very high levels of inflation for food items over the past couple of years, I believe that the £85 a week for adults is too low to protect people from poverty, and that is in violation of article nine of the international covenant on economic, social [and cultural] rights. That is what human rights law says”, De Shutter said.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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