"The Government’s place is not to be assisting people who think they can’t make it on their own, it’s an absolute last emergency order” --> the words of UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty & Human Rights @Alston_UNSR should shame Britain & need to be publicised. My THREAD: 
Professor Philip Alston said that 14 million people are in poverty in the UK (a figure the Government disputes) and that child poverty rates are “staggering” and are predicted to go up significantly over the next couple of years. #poverty #humanrights #austerity
The UN Special Rapporteur said he saw “a lot of misery” during his trip to the UK & met “a lot of people who feel the system is really there just to punish them”. People who could have gotten help in "yesterday's Britain" can no longer count on it #poverty #humanrights #austerity
Government ministers are in "a state of denial", Philip Alston said. "The ministers with whom I met told me things are going well, that they don’t see any big problems and that they are happy with the way in which their policies are playing out.” #poverty #humanrights #austerity
Ministers “have an overriding set of objectives which is to cut the welfare state, cut what they see as dependency and they are looking at that bottom line". Philip Alston said ministers can't be as happy with the system as they claim they are. #poverty #humanrights #austerity
"The system epitomised by Universal Credit is in fact driven by the desire to get across a simple set of messages – the state does not have your back any longer, you are on your own. As Margaret Thatcher famously said, there’s no such thing as society." - Philip Alston #austerity
"Nothing will be made easy", sanctions for those on benefits should be harsh, immediate & painful, which creates fear, loathing & immense hardship. This punitive approach is “incompatible with British sense of community & values of justice & fairness” - Philip Alston #austerity
UN Special Rapporteur: There's been almost no discussion of the effect of Brexit on poverty – but poorer people will bear the brunt of the economic fallout from it. Brexit will make the economic concerns which contributed to the vote to leave EU worse #austerity #Brexit #poverty
Philip Alston: “The damage being done to the fabric of British society, to the sense of community… soon there will be no where for those in the lower income groups to go. They will find themselves living in an increasingly hostile & unwelcoming society” #poverty #austerity
“I was surprised at all the talk of suicide”, Philip Alston said of the mental health effects of the UK's austerity policies. The fact that the Government has appointed a minister for suicide prevention speaks volumes. #austerity #poverty #mentalhealth
Professor Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty & Human Rights, says of Britain's austerity policies: "There are pretty serious mental health dimensions to the poverty challenges that I’ve seen here." #austerity #poverty #mentalhealth
The UK Government is potentially violating people's human rights through its #austerity policies --> “I think we could analyse a lot of these policies in terms of their inconsistency with Britain’s basic human rights obligations”, says Philip Alston #humanrights #poverty
Philip Alston: "I have no difficulty in relying on the private sector to contribute, but I don’t think the private sector will ever be the lead agent in compassion, in reaching out, in providing the essential services that people suffering from these other challenges really need”
'Britain is heading towards an alienated society with pretty dramatic differences between upper classes & lower classes... two dramatically different societies of people living the high life, a higher life than ever has been lived before, & people not able to afford tin of beans'
Read a statement by Professor Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, on his findings in the UK here: ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/… #poverty #humanrights #socialjustice #austerity
