UK’S welfare reform is a ‘catastrophe for disabled’ says UN boss

THE UK Government has created a “human catastrophe” for disabled people with welfare reform, the chairman of a United Nations committee has said.

Policies have “totally neglected” the vulnerabilities faced by disabled people, according to Theresia Degener of the UN’S Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Ms Degener said “social cut policies have led to a human catastrophe in your country, totally neglecting the vulnerable situation people with disabilities find themselves in”.

The law professor from Germany is a disability rights campaigner, who has argued that disability is a “social construct, not a medical condition”.

As a share of GDP, the UK’S public spending on disability and incapacity is higher than all other G7 countries other than Germany, the Government has said, adding that its focus has been on helping disabled people achieve their potential in the jobs market and in wider society.