Benefits cut breaks human rights law, says UN envoy

[Silver]

 

The UK introduced a £20 per week boost to Universal Credit last year, along with a raft of measures to help individuals and businesses survive Covid and lockdowns.

This benefit increase is due to end next month, but a cross-party group of MPs are urging the government to continue it.

It is claimed that the cut-off date was chosen in the expectation that the worst financial effects of Covid would be over, but in fact the UK is faced with the biggest monthly increase in inflation in several decades (partly attributable to the "Eat Out to Help Out" scheme last year), an un-expectedly large rise in energy costs of between £10 - £20 per month per household, and facing acute labour crises in many essential industries which will further fuel inflation:

‘Unconscionable’ universal credit cut breaks human rights law, says UN envoy

Poverty rapporteur says removal of £20 a week uplift based on ‘very ill-informed understanding’ of impact

Cutting universal credit by £20 a week is an “unconscionable” move that breaches international human rights law and is likely to trigger an explosion of poverty, the United Nations’ poverty envoy has said.

In an excoriating intervention alongside a letter to the UK government, Olivier De Schutter, the UN-appointed rapporteur on extreme poverty, told the Guardian that the withdrawal of the £1,000-a-year uplift from next month was “deliberately retrogressive” and incompatible with Britain’s obligation to protect its citizens’ rights to an adequate standard of living.

“It’s unconscionable at this point in time to remove this benefit,” he said, adding the decision to cut universal credit – which was boosted last year to help people get through the pandemic – was based on a “very ill-informed understanding” of its impact on claimants.

‘Unconscionable’ universal credit cut breaks human rights law, says UN envoy | Universal credit | The Guardian

Edited September 16, 2021 by The Silver Shroud

[Essan]

It's raining, so you lend someone an umbrella.  Next day it's not raining and you ask for it back.  But that's not fair!  You can't do that.  Cos wee got rites, innit! 

You give someone £20 for their birthday.   Next day, it's not their birthday so you give them nothing.   But that's not fair!   You can't stop giving them money just like that.   Complain to the UN.  Cos wee got rites, innit!

[itsnotoutthere]

So does that mean that all those countries that don't hand out  'free' money are breaking human rights laws as well?

[L.A.T.1961]

What happens when the £20 added to previous benefits is retained and then that money is unavailable for health or education budgets.

Its a view of the situation that can only be supported if it is believed there is a limitless pot of money and no associated consequences.

So its right up the Guardians street.   

[itsnotoutthere]

Read this in an interesting article the other day :-

"There were 460,000 available beds in the NHS in 1948. Shockingly, barely credibly, today there are only 129,000.Between 2003 and 2013 the number of hospital beds in England fell by 30 per cent from 3.7 per thousand of population to 2.6. In comparison, France has 6 beds per thousand of population and Germany has 8. Even these shocking figures don’t tell the whole truth, for they are supplied by the Department of Health (DoH); and DoH propagandists for the NHS operate with some cloud cuckoo definitions of what counts as a bed. For example, the DoH declares: ‘A couch or trolley should be considered as a hospital bed provided it is used regularly to permit a patient to lie down rather than for merely examination or transport. Meanwhile, the number of senior managers has increased from about 500 in the 1970s to 43,000 today."

The NHS is a money pit, it could have double the budget & still not improve.

[Duke Wellington]

11 hours ago, The Silver Shroud said:

The UK introduced a £20 per week boost to Universal Credit last year, along with a raft of measures to help individuals and businesses survive Covid and lockdowns.

This benefit increase is due to end next month, but a cross-party group of MPs are urging the government to continue it.

It is claimed that the cut-off date was chosen in the expectation that the worst financial effects of Covid would be over, but in fact the UK is faced with the biggest monthly increase in inflation in several decades (partly attributable to the "Eat Out to Help Out" scheme last year), an un-expectedly large rise in energy costs of between £10 - £20 per month per household, and facing acute labour crises in many essential industries which will further fuel inflation:

‘Unconscionable’ universal credit cut breaks human rights law, says UN envoy

Poverty rapporteur says removal of £20 a week uplift based on ‘very ill-informed understanding’ of impact

Cutting universal credit by £20 a week is an “unconscionable” move that breaches international human rights law and is likely to trigger an explosion of poverty, the United Nations’ poverty envoy has said.

In an excoriating intervention alongside a letter to the UK government, Olivier De Schutter, the UN-appointed rapporteur on extreme poverty, told the Guardian that the withdrawal of the £1,000-a-year uplift from next month was “deliberately retrogressive” and incompatible with Britain’s obligation to protect its citizens’ rights to an adequate standard of living.

“It’s unconscionable at this point in time to remove this benefit,” he said, adding the decision to cut universal credit – which was boosted last year to help people get through the pandemic – was based on a “very ill-informed understanding” of its impact on claimants.

‘Unconscionable’ universal credit cut breaks human rights law, says UN envoy | Universal credit | The Guardian

Its time for them to go back to work.

They need the encouragement of only being able to afford food. No alcohol, no cigs, having to shop at Primark, having to go to pound shops and cheaper super markets, and being at home bored out of their brains as they lack the money to do anything else.

The only thing I disagree with is the long-term unemployed that have a reason why they cannot get a job should be given a higher rate.

[Duke Wellington]

9 minutes ago, itsnotoutthere said:

Read this in an interesting article the other day :-

"There were 460,000 available beds in the NHS in 1948. Shockingly, barely credibly, today there are only 129,000.Between 2003 and 2013 the number of hospital beds in England fell by 30 per cent from 3.7 per thousand of population to 2.6. In comparison, France has 6 beds per thousand of population and Germany has 8. Even these shocking figures don’t tell the whole truth, for they are supplied by the Department of Health (DoH); and DoH propagandists for the NHS operate with some cloud cuckoo definitions of what counts as a bed. For example, the DoH declares: ‘A couch or trolley should be considered as a hospital bed provided it is used regularly to permit a patient to lie down rather than for merely examination or transport. Meanwhile, the number of senior managers has increased from about 500 in the 1970s to 43,000 today."

The NHS is a money pit, it could have double the budget & still not improve.

It needs privatising, with a means tested health benefit instead.

No private hospital is going to allow tall and wide management structures. They will want to make a profit so will cut management down to what is actually needed.

[ethereal_scout]

7 hours ago, itsnotoutthere said:

So does that mean that all those countries that don't hand out  'free' money are breaking human rights laws as well?

No, they know something we don't. Food grows and money is printed. Here we have the Toff Tories that assume (because they are a satanic cult in their own right) that everything is on tax, it isn't. 

At present UC is £90 per week for food, everything. Equivalent to a salary of £4680. They are proposing knocking £1000 of this and leaveing it £70 per week.

First rule of the free-market - give your customers money - most countries have quite high UB because its an important source of currency in society.

[Guest Br Cornelius]

Even with the £20 uplift the UK has one of the lowest benefits rates in Europe, it also has one of the lowest average wages per capita in Europe.  The mentality is to starve them off the dole.

Having such a low floor to income means that even when in work, poverty is common across the UK (go hungry poverty).

 

Br Cornelius

[Guest Br Cornelius]

The UK also has one of the lowest productivity rates in Europe and I don't think the low wage culture is unrelated. If you treat workers as cheap disposable assetts you don't train or adequately equip them to do their job, them they cannot give the best of themselves which reduces their productivity.

And low benefit rates help to surpress wages by lowering the floor of what people are forced to accept to keep out of penury.

Br Cornelius