Government has failed to protect poor children

THE four UK children’s commissioners have joined forces to urge the Westminster government to halt its programme of benefit cuts to prevent more young people being pushed into poverty.

The commissioners for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said child poverty rates across the UK were “unacceptably high” and that there had been a failure to protect those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.

In a joint report to the United Nations, the commissioners also voiced concern at the impact on children of the government’s plans to scrap the Human Rights Act (HRA) – which enshrines the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in UK law – and replace it with a British bill of rights.

The commissioners’ report said: “The HRA has been vital in promoting and protecting the rights of children in the United Kingdom and the European Court of Human Rights has had an important role in developing the protection offered to children by the ECHR.

“The commissioners are concerned that any amendment or replacement of the HRA is likely to be regressive.”

Their intervention, just a week before George Osborne is expected to set out further details of the government’s plans to cut another £12 billion from the welfare bill in an emergency Budget, is likely to anger ministers.

The commissioners said the government’s austerity policies had resulted in “a failure to protect the most disadvantaged children and those in especially vulnerable groups from child poverty”.

The report said: “The best interests of children were not central to the development of these policies and children’s views were not sought.”