Deep concern about impact of UK Government’s Spring Statement

The Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) is deeply concerned about the impact of announcements on the future of the UK welfare system in the UK Government’s Spring Statement, especially for disabled people and their families and communities. 

Plans to cut the health element of Universal Credit will have a direct effect on the human rights of those disabled people in Scotland who are unable to work. Although payments to support people with the additional costs of disability are devolved in Scotland, the UK Government’s proposals will have negative consequences for the Scottish Budget.

Severe economic hardship

Earlier this month, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which holds governments around the world to account for their record on human rights, warned that changes to the UK welfare system introduced since 2012 have “eroded the rights to social security and to an adequate standard of living, disproportionally affecting persons with disabilities, low-income families and workers in precarious employment” and warned that these changes have resulted in “severe economic hardship”.

Last year, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities reiterated its position that the UK welfare system is leading to ‘grave and systematic’ violations of disabled people’s rights. Over the past week many disabled people, Disabled People’s Organisations and civil society organisations have expressed shock and fear about what further changes to the system could mean for people.

Professor Angela O’Hagan, Chair of the SHRC, says:

“With these announcements, the UK Government is not only disregarding the expert findings and recommendations of human rights bodies, but actively pursuing regressive changes that further deteriorate the rights of disabled people in Scotland. 

"Indeed, these steps may potentially represent a breach of the UK’s obligations under international human rights law, particularly its duty to progressively realise the rights to social security, an adequate standard of living, and non-discrimination.

“Social security, an adequate standard of living, and non-discrimination are not optional benefits — they are binding human rights that the UK is required to respect, protect, and fulfil for everyone.

“These proposals fly in the face of both the letter and the spirit of the UK’s human rights obligations.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

  1. UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in March 2025 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Concluding observations on the seventh periodic report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  1. UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in March 2025
  2. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Report on follow-up to the inquiry concerning the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  1. UK Government’s Spring Statement on 25 March 2025 Spring Statement 2025
  1. Impact on households: distributional analysis to accompany Spring Statement 2025 Impact on households: distributional analysis to accompany Spring Statement 2025