the un's philip alston will spend the next two weeks speaking to people up and down the country about government's responding to the needs of the people once his time in the uk is done. the public was invited to send in written submissions about the issues that matter to them — those letters included everything from universal credit, child poverty and pensions. in the studio this morning are; louisa mcgeehan who is the head of policy at thechild poverty action group — that's one of the charities that wrote to philip alston ahead of his visit here this week. sheila jones also submitted a letter — she is a nurse who feels women over the age of 50 are losing out thousands of pounds on state pensions and jailson rocha is also here — he is someone who has struggled with housing. and, alex tiffin is in our inverness studio — he also wrote to philip alston — he's had issues with universal credit since it was piloted. welcome, all of you and thank you for coming in. sheila, you see you've missed out on thousands of pounds since the retirement age for women was raised, how has this affected yo

philip alston said he found staggering levels of child poverty, and a harsh welfare regime that tells poor... that people who need benefits should be reminded constantly that they are lucky to get anything, that nothing will be made easy. he called for immediate changes to universal credit, the main welfare reform, and deplored the disproportionate effect on women of benefit changes. if you had got a group of misogynists in a room and said, "guys, how can we make this system work for men and not for women?" they wouldn't have come up with too many other ideas than what's already in place. as you'd expect, ministers have hit back, saying they completely disagree with the un's analysis. they say that household incomes have never been higher, there are one million fewer people living in absolute poverty than in 2010, and that they're committed to providing the right support to those in need. the un's criticisms won't quickly improve the lot of the poor, in jaywick or elsewhere, but they may focus more minds on the daily struggles of millions of britons. michael buchanan, bbc news. now on

in the footsteps of the united nations' special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, philip alston. alston recently toured america, spotliting third-world-style poverty in our first-world country. supported in part by a grant from the pulitzer center on crisis reporting, this report is part of our ongoing series about poverty and opportun america, "chasing the dream." m >> reporter:owell county is emblematic of the poverty still rgagging down parts of america. it leads west ia in the number of people hospitalized ovr opioid-related reasonser 36% of the population lives below the poverty line, and the population has dropped from 50,000 to less than 20,000 since 1970. a disproportionate amount of residents here rely on medicaid and medicare as their primary health insurance. because programs don't cover dental in a meaningful way, it's led to a dental health crisis. the crisis is playing out in a town called welch. this facility is run by health right. it's a nonprofit medical group that deploys a mobile clinic staffed with three health professionals to areas of the stat care.served

special up to a philip alston who specializes in extreme poverty he's got an investigating u.k. doing a tour and a fact finding mission this particular story he has to jailbreak an essex which has been the subject of many programmes on the television about poverty about benefit claimants about austerity he's also been hearing evidence about food banks see it's been quite forthright actually has come out and said that for the food bank system in this country it shouldn't be an replace of the state operating in protecting people who are at the bottom rungs of society but of course there's. an added element to this which the mainstream press of generally missed this is the fifth the fifth reports by un subcommittee in thirty months in the u.k. we have un committee on economic social and cultural rights reports on june twenty sixth game found another un human rights committee reports and we've had two reports by the un committee and so the rights of persons with disabilities one of which said the u.k. government have committed grave and systematic violations of people's human rights

on extreme poverty and human rights philip alston as if policies continue within four years four in ten children could be in poverty but the u.k. government denies the problem. we are absolutely committed to helping people improve their lives while providing the right support for those who need it. or for a food bank britain raible foot has concerns about the grim statistics in the un report. a why in twenty eighteen people are literally starving to death not just in india not just in yemen not just in kashmir but also here in london one of the richest capitals on the planet why isn't it this story is not number one on the b.b.c. number one on i.t.v. poverty one in five that's twenty percent of the population are in poverty so poverty is an issue we all need to be addressing all political parties are responsible why is it with one in five people in poverty in this in the u.k. not one political party has a minister dedicated to eradicate poverty and that in itself is a scandal that poverty is not being addressed it's not being seen as having any value and the reality is too many people a

for fifteen days in december twenty seven thousand professor philip alston the un special rapporteur to or on extreme poverty and human rights travel to the united states in order to quote evaluate and report to the human rights council on the extent to which the government's policies and programs aimed at addressing extreme poverty are consistent with its human rights obligations his findings paint a dire picture of life in the us the report states that a staggering forty million americans live in poverty eighteen point five million in extreme poverty and a whopping five point three million americans toil under third world conditions characterized as absolute poverty of the thirty five member states in the organization for economic cooperation and development the report finds the united states has the highest youth unemployment rate and highest in. infant mortality rate among comparable countries the us also has one of the lowest voter registration levels in the o.e.c.d. the report reads quote its citizens live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other ridged de

some reports here on extreme poverty and human rights philip alston that if policies continue within four years four in ten children could be in poverty but the u.k. government denies the problem. we are absolutely committed to helping people improve their lives while providing the right support for those who need it. because live now to the altar of food bank britain that's brave wolf nice to have you on some appalling findings though in this report what shocks you the most. what i found was over is most shocking i really need to read it because it's his words he says in my meetings with government it was clear to me that the impact of brecht's on people in poverty is an off to fort to be dealt with through manipulation of physical policy after the event if at all and then he quickly says we are witnessing the gradual disappearance of the post-war welfare state the high and a web page and the think that's really scary because amongst all the figures what people don't realize is that fifty six million people exist in britain today that's the government because of those twelve million

philip alston said he found staggering levels of child poverty and a harsh welfare regime, that tellseminded constantly that they are lucky to get anything, that nothing will be made easy. he called for immediate changes to universal credit, the main welfare reform, and deplored the disproportionate effect on women of benefit changes. if you had got a group of misogynists in a room and said, "guys, how can we make this system work for men and not for women?". .. they would not have come up with too many other ideas than what is already in place. as you would expect, ministers have hit back, saying they completely disagree with the un's analysis. they say that household incomes have never been higher, there are i million fewer people living in absolute poverty than in 2010, and they are committed to providing the right supposed to those in need. the un's criticisms will not quickly improve the lot of the poor, in jaywick or elsewhere, but they may focus more minds on the daily struggles for millions of britons. tonight could be the night when children in need reaches a fundraising tota

philip alston said he found staggering levels of child poverty, and a harsh welfare regime that tellsstantly that they are lucky to get anything, that nothing will be made easy. he called for immediate changes to universal credit, the main welfare reform, and deplored the disproportionate effect on women of benefit changes. if you had got a group of misogynists in a room and said, "guys, how can we make this system work for men and not for women?" they wouldn't have come up with too many other ideas than what's already in place. as you'd expect, ministers have hit back, saying they completely disagree with the un's analysis. they say that household incomes have never been higher, there are a million fewer people living in absolute poverty than in 2010, and that they're committed to providing the right support to those in need. the un's criticisms won't quickly improve the lot of the poor, in jaywick or elsewhere, but they may focus more minds on the daily struggles of millions of britons. michael buchanan, bbc news. funeral prayers have taken place in saudi arabia, turkey and several

philip alston said he found staggering levels of child poverty, and a harsh welfare regime that tellsd benefits should be reminded constantly that they are lucky to get anything, that nothing will be made easy. he called for immediate changes to universal credit, the main welfare reform, and deplored the disproportionate effect on women of benefit changes. if you had got a group of misogynists in a room and said, "guys, how can we make this system work for men and not for women?" they wouldn't have come up with too many other ideas than what's already in place. as you'd expect, ministers have hit back, saying they completely disagree with the un's analysis. they say that household incomes have never been higher, there are 1 million fewer people living in absolute poverty than in 2010, and that they're committed to providing the right support to those in need. the un's criticisms won't quickly improve the lot of the poor, in jaywick or elsewhere, but they may focus more minds on the daily struggles of millions of britons. michael buchanan, bbc news. the number of people missing after w

philip alston said he found staggering levels of child poverty, and a harsh welfare regime that tells poor... that people who need benefits should be reminded constantly that they are lucky to get anything, that nothing will be made easy. he called for immediate changes to universal credit, the main welfare reform, and deplored the disproportionate effect on women of benefit changes. if you had got a group of misogynists in a room and said, "guys, how can we make this system work for men and not for women?" they wouldn't have come up with too many other ideas than what's already in place. as you'd expect, ministers have hit back, saying they completely disagree with the un's analysis. they say that household incomes have never been higher, there are one million fewer people living in absolute poverty than in 2010, and that they're committed to providing the right support to those in need. the un's criticisms won't quickly improve the lot of the poor, in jaywick or elsewhere, but they may focus more minds on the daily struggles of millions of britons. michael buchanan, bbc news. now on

special apatow on extreme poverty and human rights philip alston has spent a day in jail which is part of an investigation into increasing hardship across the country five thousand residents are hoping now the world is watching things might start to change their own city went to the town to find out lol. half a century ago j. week was a thriving holiday resorts that was hard to imagine now for years this village on the east coast of england has been listed as one of the u.k.'s poorest places five thousand people have been left to work out how to live and almost complete isolation. danny has taken it upon himself to speak for the community and he sets up the j. week happy club to define gesture of hope over diversity we need to help the younger people rob to take the wrong because there's no jobs they might not they might get into bad habits like it's like i'm going to be sore doing drugs or drinking but we can save these people like giving them opportunities everyone in every one sound has everywhere the restorers of the impacts of declining austerity . is an unemployed tired face of t

during his fact—finding mission to jaywick yesterday, professor philip alston told this programme theewhere in the world' . he also questioned the government's recent claim that austerity was at an end. the government says that household incomes have never been higher and there are 1 million fewer people living in absolute poverty than in 2010. but what effect has austerity — reduced spending and radical changes to the welfare state — had on places like jaywick? ? when i came to jaywick, this was a shop, this was a casino, loads of fruit machines, loads of great life, that is where all the young people went. jaywick had so much culture and class in those days. it used to be thriving because we used to have a butlins in the town and the butlins employed a lot of people. all the people that couldn't get chalets at butlins used to come to jaywick instead. it was amazing, it was like a holiday village, it always felt you was on holiday. but can you imagine when they shut butlins in 198a? what that did to jaywick? well, it went from like the costa deljaywick to a ghost town. i still walk w

policies are inflicting unnecessary misery on the poor the leading researcher for the un that's philip alston has just wrapped up a twelve it twelve day tour off the u.k. he spoke to people struggling to find their next mail and families facing homelessness now a fifth of the u.k.'s population lives and poverty that's about fourteen million people and remember this is one of the richest countries in the world and that number is set to rise after the u.k. leaves the e.u. alston says the government doesn't have any plans to protect the poor or middle class who bear the brunt of brics economic impact he says the benefits system is often punitive main spirited and callous instead of providing support and he accuses mayes government of being in denial about the impact of its austerity measures on society it's a totally mechanical economic analysis that ignores the damage that i think is being done to the fabric of british society to the sense of community which is been built in part of the sports center is the recreation places the public lands that are being sold off the libraries that are being