UN: Trump hits poor hardest

POVERTY in the US is extensive and deepening under the Trump administration, whose policies seem aimed at removing the safety net from millions of poor people while rewarding the rich, a UN human rights investigator has found.

Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty, called on US authorities to provide solid social protection and address underlying problems, rather than “punishing and imprisoning the poor”.

The Australian, a veteran UN rights expert and New York University law professor, will present his report to the UN Human Rights Council later this month.

Welfare benefits and access to health insurance are being slashed, but President Donald Trump’s tax reform has awarded “financial windfalls” to the mega-rich and large companies, further increasing inequality, he said in the report, adding that US policies since President Lyndon Johnson’s 1960s war on poverty have been “neglectful at best”.

“But the policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship,” Alston said.

Almost 41 million people or 12.7 per cent live in poverty, 18.5 million in extreme poverty, and children account for one in three poor, he said.

The US has the highest youth poverty rate among industrialised countries, he added.

“Its citizens live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies, eradicable tropical diseases are increasingly prevalent and it has the world’s highest incarceration rate,” Alston said.

A US official in Geneva, asked for comment, said: “The Trump Administration has made it a priority to provide economic opportunity for all Americans.”