Alan Miller, chairman of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, made the comments discussing the so-called bedroom tax during a debate on welfare reform.
Speaking at The Gathering, the annual charities conference in Glasgow, Mr Miller claimed the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had not addressed the question of human rights when framing the policy. "They asked, 'Is there an impact on human rights?' and ticked the box marked 'No'," he said. "That is not a proper impact assessment. It is a joke, or would be if the consequences were not so serious."
The change means people in social housing who have rooms they are deemed not to need will lose a proportion of housing benefit, so they receive less than the cost of their rent. Mr Miller said if people were forced into arrears and evicted as a result, it was likely their right to a family life and home could be infringed. "The Government should have taken that into account," he said. He added that the UK authorities had failed to put into place internationally agreed standards on social and economic rights, citing Germany and Latvia where such a framework is constitutionally guaranteed.
German-based asylum seekers have forced the Government to review the payments they are expected to survive on by asserting a right to human dignity, while in Latvia pensioners used their laws to prove their Government had brought in austerity measures which disproportionately affected older people, forcing leaders to review its policy across the board.
Source; Herald Scotland
