Source: Amnesty International –
Human rights in the UK in crisis as new report exposes crushing evidence of a social security system ruining lives
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Discrimination and dehumanisation reported as rife as punitive system drives poverty by policy
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‘I am barely holding on financially. I always feel just one step away from rock bottom’ – Isla
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‘Lives are being ruined by a system that is consciously cruel – it erodes dignity by design’– Neil Cowan, Amnesty
Amnesty International UK’s new report takes a deep dive into the UK social security system. The unique research is an extensive look through the lens of human rights violations across our basic rights to housing, food, education, healthcare and social security.
The evidence delivers damning conclusions on how the system processes, punishes, harms and dehumanises people and fails to meet international legal obligations. Successive UK governments have ignored the UN’s pleas to take urgent action to fix this.
Poverty is a visible sign of a failing social security system. When the UK government knowingly makes choices to make poverty worse, it is deliberately violating basic human rights. We have moved from a society that supports people to a punitive system that drives poverty by policy.
The rate of poverty in the UK is now higher than at any point in the 21st century. Sixteen million people in the UK are living in families in poverty – almost a quarter of the UK*. Of these, 5.2 million are children, 9.2 million are working-age adults, and 1.5 million are pension-age adults. While poverty rates in Scotland are now marginally lower than in the rest of the UK, 20% of people in Scotland are living in the grip of poverty including almost one in four children.
For its report ’Social Insecurity’ Amnesty’s collaborated with over 700 benefit claimants – including 74 claimant interviews in Scotland – and advisors to provide a platform for the people most gravely affected and show how politicians are playing with people’s lives and ignoring our most basic rights. In 2024 86% of low-income families on Universal Credit went without essentials such as heating, food and clothing.
With the backdrop of the Spring Statement and devastating disability social security cuts, Amnesty’s report delivers a crushing blow of evidence on the UK’s social security system and political choices that have pushed people into poverty and centres real-life experiences throughout, demonstrating the depth of dehumanisation.
Recommendations from the report call for:
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System overhaul: A landmark, independent Social Security Commission with statutory powers to overhaul the UK’s broken social security system—rooted in dignity and human rights.
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Urgent protection from harm: The UK Government to urgently reverse harmful social security cuts, sanctions and caps including the two-child limit and ensure upcoming reforms of PIP, ESA and Universal Credit, meet international human rights standards and are shaped by those most affected.
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Legal protections: The UK Government to put in place legal frameworks protecting economic, social and cultural rights to ensure everyone’s basic human rights to food, housing, and dignity are protected in law and prevent failures in social security policy from causing wider harms.