One in five Britons with disabilities have their rights violated, UN told

One in five British people are suffering erosion of their rights because they are disabled, the government-backed Equality and Human Rights Commission has said in a damning report to the United Nations.
The body cites “deeply concerning” evidence that despite government pledges to improve conditions for the nearly 14 million disabled Britons, their situation is getting worse across the UK.
Its report to the UN committee on disability rights that “more and more disabled people are finding it difficult to live independently and be included, and participate, in their communities on an equal basis”.
More disabled people live in poverty than non-disabled people, and more are bullied in schools, it says. Forty per cent of disabled people do not feel valued by society, according to research by Scope, half feel excluded and only 42% feel the UK is a good place for disabled people to live.
The findings have been backed by disabled people and campaign groups who said “we are slipping back to darker times”. The government responded that it was “committed to building a society which is fully inclusive of disabled people” and that ministers were grasping the problems.
Almost half of all people of pensionable age in the UK are disabled, as are one in five working-age adults. Disability is defined under the 2010 Equality Act as a “physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities”.
Scope estimates that disabled people spend £570 a month more the average Briton, but the EHRC says they are harder hit by welfare reforms, experience increasing barriers to finding work and are paid less when they do find work. It said Brexit would lead to a further deterioration of the situation.
Kamran Mallick, the chief executive of Disability Rights UK, said: “Any progress made through government initiatives is immediately counterbalanced by a swathe of cuts elsewhere. Help with employment is of little use if people are unable to get to work because their mobility benefits have been taken away.”