The UN will send a Special Rapporteur to Britain to probe the alleged rights violations. According to the Independent, the inquiry will be “confidential,” and the UN will not comment on its process.
Reforms in recent years have led to weekly welfare payments being cut from £102.15 to £73.10, the Daily Mirror reported, and the Centre for Welfare Reform reported that the cuts hit the disabled up to 19 times harder than other welfare claimants.
"Because disabled people are less likely to be in work, they are more likely to also be reliant on benefits which aren't specifically for disabled people, but which are claimed by people on low income — like housing benefit and council tax benefit,” Bill Scott, director of policy at Inclusion Scotland, told the Sunday Herald. “It affects disabled people disproportionately.”
The investigation’s launch has caused a significant backlash among conservative British politicians. Ian Liddell-Grainger, a member of Parliament from the Tory faction, called the UN’s initiative “the most absurd and offensive nonsense.”
“I am not an expert on disability rights in Costa Rica, but I suspect Miss Devandas Aguilar might be better off focusing her efforts much closer to home. The UN should keep their noses out,” he argued, as quoted by the Daily Mail.
