CRPD concluding observations 2017, paragraph 59
Plain English recommendation
Government should: Work with disabled people’s organisations, and in line with the CRPD Committee’s recommendations following its inquiry into the UK (2016) to: (a) Introduce laws to ensure social security policies protect the income of disabled people and their families, allowing for the extra costs that come with disability. Ensure people seeking Employment and Support Allowance can get extra money for additional living costs related to their impairment. Ensure disabled people can exercise their parental responsibilities. (b) Assess the impact of recent and forthcoming changes to the social security system on disabled people. Tackle any reductions in disabled people’s standard of living. (c) Remove the Personal Independence Payment (Amendment) Regulations of 2017. Ensure eligibility for Personal Independence Payments, Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit aligns with the human rights model of disability. (d) Ensure local authorities have enough funds to meet their responsibilities to support disabled people, and to counteract the negative impacts of social security reform in Northern Ireland. (e) Review the conditions and sanctions of Employment and Support Allowance. Tackle the negative impact of this on disabled people.
Original UN recommendation
The Committee recommends that the State party, in close collaboration with organizations of persons with disabilities across all territorial entities, in line with the Committee’s report on its inquiry concerning the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland carried out under article 6 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention, guided by article 28 of the Convention and implementing target 10.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals: (a) Introduce, adopt and implement legislative frameworks to ensure that social protection policies and programmes across the State party secure income levels for all persons with disabilities and their families, by taking into account the additional costs relating to disability, and ensuring that persons with disabilities are able to exercise their parental responsibilities. The State party must ensure that members of the new Employment and Support Allowance work-related activity group have access to full compensation of disability-related costs. (b) Carry out a cumulative impact assessment, based on disaggregated data, of the recent and forthcoming reforms of the social protection system for persons with disabilities, and in close collaboration with organizations of persons with disabilities define, implement and monitor measures to tackle retrogression in their standard of living and use the cumulative impact assessment as a basis for policy development across the State party. (c) Repeal the Personal Independence Payment (Amendment) Regulations of 2017 and ensure that eligibility criteria and assessments to access Personal Independence Payments, Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit are in line with the human rights model of disability. (d) Ensure that the budget allocation is sufficient for local authorities to meet their responsibilities regarding assistance for persons with disabilities, and extend support packages to mitigate the negative impacts of social security reform in Northern Ireland. (e) Conduct a review of the conditionality and sanction regimes concerning the Employment and Support Allowance, and tackle the negative consequences on the mental health and situation of persons with disabilities.
Date of UN examination
03/10/2017
UN article number
28 (adequate standard of living and social protection)
Original UN document
Download the original CRPD concluding observations 2017 on the UN website