“Disadvantaged UK children disproportionately affected by austerity”

A cross-party group of British lawmakers say disadvantaged children are disproportionately bearing the brunt of government austerity measures.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights found that migrant children as well as those from low-income families have been hit the hardest by government cuts in benefits and the provision of services.

"Certain categories of children may have been protected from the worst impacts of austerity, but other groups - in particular migrant children, whether unaccompanied or not, and children in low-income families - have been hit by cuts in benefits and in the provision of services."

In a report on the Government's compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the committee said there is evidence that specific pieces of legislation "run directly counter to the principle of protecting the most disadvantaged". The parliamentarians cited London’s decision to restrict rises in working-age benefits to 1% while allowing other payments including pensions to rise in line with inflation.

"All the evidence with which we have been presented during this short inquiry points to the fact that the impact on children of this current period of austerity has been greater than for many other groups.”

Founder of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), Peter Saunders, has told Press TV’s UK desk that the repercussions of such economic policies could go way beyond the findings of the parliamentary group:

 “I think the cuts to any services, particularly to services that affect our most vulnerable citizens, who are children, is utterly reprehensible and wrong. We live in very, very wealthy society, a very wealthy country and there is no real reason that these cuts should be implemented. Children who are impoverished will inevitably become more vulnerable to other forms of abuse and this is a very, very backward step”.

The MPs said the government should have monitored the impact of its economic policies more closely and worked harder to reverse the negative effects.

The report suggested child poverty be regarded as a breach of human rights. It also called on the government to commit to ending the issue by 2020.

The report also warned that “more children will be poor, hungry and cold, not fewer, by 2016-17 if something is not done."

Britons are record holders in Western Europe when it comes to the number of kids in custody. The parliamentarians in their report reflected on the matter and raised concerns about use of force against children in custody:

"We remain very concerned about the use of force on children in custody and believe that the recent provisions with regard to secure colleges in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act cannot be considered compatible with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child".

The report blasted London over its reforms to the legal aid system, describing some of them as "a significant black mark" on the government's human rights record during the second half of this Parliament.

The committee acknowledged that ministers had addressed their concerns in a "few discrete areas", but called on them to look again at the changes and "undo some of the harm they have caused to children".

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