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“ U.K. Austerity policy has inflicted great misery” says UN

(58 Posts)
mostlyharmless Fri 16-Nov-18 13:09:52

Really disgraceful for a wealthy country like Britain.

The UK government has inflicted “great misery” on its people with “punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous” austerity policies driven by a political desire to undertake social re-engineering rather than economic necessity, the United Nations poverty envoy has found.

Philip Alston, the UN’s rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, ended a two-week fact-finding mission to the UK with a stinging declaration that despite being the world’s fifth largest economy, levels of child poverty are “not just a disgrace, but a social calamity and an economic disaster”.
www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/16/uk-austerity-has-inflicted-great-misery-on-citizens-un-says?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
I notice that the BBC are keeping very quiet about this report,

mostlyharmless Fri 23-Nov-18 13:07:42

The system doesn’t seem to believe that some people are far too ill to go to a workplace assessment.

Caroline Austin says: “This is Charlotte, my daughter, who has severe multiple sclerosis. She cant walk. She has a catheter, she can’t hold anything. She can’t feed herself, she’s weak. She has days where she can hardly talk or breathe properly. She is heat sensitive, the list goes on.

“I want as many people to see this …. universal credit has not given Charlotte any money since 29th September, despite me telling them [DWP] how severely disabled she is … even if she gets her money, she still will lose the severe disability allowance of £120.00 per month. I have to produce another sick note and they have said she could still be assessed for work. Our government should be ashamed.

Video here:
kittysjones.wordpress.com/2018/11/23/this-is-our-country-this-is-what-the-government-are-doing-targeting-the-vulnerable-says-charlottes-mum/

Baggs Fri 23-Nov-18 13:58:56

Thanks for the info, maiz.

Baggs Fri 23-Nov-18 14:03:48

Does anyone have a link to the report, please? Google takes me to the Guardian article about it rather than the report itself.

Baggs Fri 23-Nov-18 14:11:06

Found it via Twitter.

EllanVannin Fri 23-Nov-18 14:24:52

Like many I knew this UC would inflict misery. I'd watched that odious woman Esther McVey trumpeting on about how marvellous it was and I despised every word that she spoke. A most uncaring speech in which I'll never know how she'd had the brass neck to even be part of it knowing that many in her town of birth,Liverpool,were already either scratching a living or were already homeless. Those living rough has risen,most through no fault of their own but of the system generally and the sheer lack of trained support for those living on the edge.

varian Fri 30-Nov-18 13:55:11

"The UK government has inflicted “great misery” on its people with “punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous” austerity policies driven by a political desire to undertake social re-engineering rather than economic necessity, the United Nations poverty envoy has found."

After this authoritative report, surely the very last thing a responsible government should do is to damage the economy even further by a policy of brexit which both the Treasury and the Bank of England have warned will make this country poorer?

mostlyharmless Fri 30-Nov-18 15:53:14

I don’t think this Government is at all worried about making most of the country poorer as long as their own friends, family and businesses are doing alright varian.