Letter by UN poverty experts including Raquel Rolnik blasts welfare reform

According to the Daily Mail, the 22-page letter was sent to Karen Pierce, Britain’s ambassador to the UN, criticises George Osborne’s indications that welfare reform will continue until at least 2017. It also criticises the benefits cap and raises concerns about the bedroom tax.

The letter says: ‘We would like to bring to your government’s attention information we have received concerning the… impact of reductions in public expenditure, in particular to social security, to an adequate standard of living… and to equality and non-discrimination, especially for people living in poverty.

‘According to concerned sources, the package of austerity measures enacted could amount to retrogressive measures prohibited under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ratified in 1974.’

Iain Duncan Smith responded vehemently to the letter, saying the ‘claims’ are ‘absurd and unwarranted intervention’.

The work and pensions secretary said to the Daily Mail: ‘They simply do not have a clue – and we will not be taking lessons from a group of unelected commentators who can’t get their facts straight.

‘The truth is that this country has more people in work than ever before, unemployment at its lowest rate for five years, and an economy that is back on track after the mess it was left in by the last government.’

The Conservative Party previously clashed with Ms Rolnik when she criticised the bedroom tax following an official visit last year. The report she published in February was slammed as ‘partisan’ by ministers.

The letter is dated May 20 and will be discussed at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in September.