A COMMUNITY activist who met with the UN special rapporteur in his fact-finding visit to Scotland has spoken out as the "eye-watering" report is published.
Professor Philip Alston, the UN's special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, published his final paper on poverty in the UK yesterday.
It concludes the UK's welfare safety net has been "deliberately removed" and the Scottish Government has "reached the limit" of what it can do.
READ MORE: Scotland can do no more to mitigate Tory austerity, UN report says
Jamie Clark, a community activist from Glasgow's Ruchazie district, spoke with Alston in November. On the publication of the UN report into poverty in the UK, Clark said: “As someone who has years of experience raising a family on a low income, the eye-watering findings in this report reflect the reality of the life I see day in day out."
Calling the Universal Credit benefits system the "biggest problem" in his community, Clark went on: “Living in poverty is like being stuck in the middle of spider’s web with no escape route. You can climb further up the web to try and get out but something keeps dragging you back.
"Low pay, insecure work, zero hours contracts and a punitive social security system make it very difficult to escape. That’s the trap of poverty. If we want to live in a decent society where we care for each other, then something urgently has to change. As a first step, the UK Government should end the waiting time for Universal Credit and overhaul the punitive sanctions regime.”
Single parent Claire, who did not want to give her last name, said living on the low income from her part-time job and benefits is causing her anxiety and insomnia. She said: "It drags me down as a person, and it makes me a worse person. I lose my temper more easily.
"It’s a constant stress – am I going to make ends meet?’"
Poverty Alliance convenor Anela Anwar called the plight of low-income households "scandalous", adding: “Our social security system should be an anchor that helps us stay afloat during difficult times. But as the report makes clear, the introduction of Universal Credit, the benefits freeze and the punitive sanctions regime have pulled people into poverty.”
And, calling on Holyrood to take action, SallyAnn Kelly, chief executive of the Aberlour Child Care Trust, cautioned: “We should not be seduced into the ‘it’s not as bad in Scotland as it is in England’ narrative, because that will ring hollow for the 240,000 children and their families living in poverty in Scotland right now.
“What this report makes clear is that poverty is a political choice, and that both the UK and Scottish Governments can choose to use the levers available to them to mitigate and reduce the shameful levels of poverty which this report has so starkly presented.”
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