Welfare Reform Bill will lead to destitution, committee warns

On the 12th December, a committee of MPs and peers warned that the Welfare Reform Bill could breach the European Convention on Human Rights by leading to destitution.

In the report, the committee stated: "We believe there is a risk that the conditionality and sanction provisions in the Bill might in some circumstances lead to destitution, such as would amount to inhuman or degrading treatment contrary to Article 3 ECHR, if the individual concerned was genuinely incapable of work."

The committee added that the Bill does not analyse in detail how it the Welfare Reform would comply with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, , or the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

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