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Britain’s shameful social security system
A new report by Amnesty International pulls no punches in highlighting the Labour government’s human rights violations of those on benefits, says Dr DYLAN MURPHY
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL’S new 157-page report Broken Britain criticises the Labour government/DWP for violating the human rights of those on benefits. It states that people on benefits face “violations of their human rights due to systemic discrimination and the failure of social security systems to meet human rights standards (for example, social security failures impact on health and access to food).”
Amnesty further notes that the right to social security (protection from income loss due to sickness, disability, unemployment) is outlined in Article 9 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which was ratified by the UK in 1976 but never incorporated into UK law. It further observes that since 2010 Britain’s austerity policies have violated these obligations repeatedly.
Amnesty’s forensically detailed report, based on hundreds of interviews with both claimants and benefits advisers, states that the current social security system in Britain is not fit for purpose as it “perpetuates the deprivation of living standards for those reliant on it, subjecting them to orchestrated stigma and a systematic erosion of their dignity.”
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