A/HRC/41/39/Add.1 families to pay for childcare up front and then seek reimbursement, meaning families may have to go into debt to take a job.67 B. Conditionality underpinned by punitive sanctions 55. One of the key features of UC involves the imposition of strict conditions enforced by draconian sanctions for even minor infringements. As the system grows older, some penalties will last years. The Special Rapporteur reviewed seemingly endless evidence illustrating the harsh and arbitrary nature of some sanctions, as well as the devastating effects of losing access to benefits for weeks or months at a time. 56. Many detailed studies give substance to the dire consequences for vulnerable claimants who are sanctioned. 68 A recent book characterized the sanctions as cruel, inhuman and degrading, 69 and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities found “evidence of grave and systematic violation of the rights of persons with disabilities”, partly on the basis of the sanctions regime. 57. Departmental and ministerial insistence notwithstanding, there is no clear evidence that blunt and harsh sanctions actually help claimants move closer to work. A recent Work and Pensions Select Committee report referred to the evidence as “patchy” and called the Government’s failure to evaluate changes to the sanctions regime “unacceptable”. 70 The Special Rapporteur spoke with claimants who felt forced to jump through bureaucratic hoops, fill out pointless job applications for positions that did not match their qualifications and take inappropriate temporary work just to avoid debilitating sanctions. 58. A deficiency in sanctions data makes it difficult to assess the regime. What is clear from those with whom the Special Rapporteur has spoken is that sanctions succeed in instilling a fear and loathing of the system. C. Universal Credit and the digital welfare State 59. UC was the first major United Kingdom government service to be made “digital by default”, thus putting some of the most vulnerable first in line for what amounts to a nationwide digital experiment.71 Benefit claims are made online and the claimant interacts with authorities primarily through an online portal. The British welfare state is gradually disappearing behind a webpage and an algorithm, with significant implications for those living in poverty. 60. The prevailing belief within the Department for Work and Pensions has been that the overwhelming majority of UC claimants are online, digitally skilled and confident enough to claim and maintain benefits digitally. 72 In reality, UC has built a digital barrier that 67 68 69 70 71 72 House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee, “Universal Credit: childcare”. Twenty-second Report of Session 2017–2019, 23 December 2018, p. 8. See, for example, Welfare Conditionality project, “Final findings”, May 2018; Peter Dwyer, “Punitive and ineffective: benefit sanctions within social security”, Journal of Social Security Law, vol. 25, No. 3 (October 2018); Lisa Scullion and others, “Sanctions, support and service leavers”, April 2018; and Rachel Loopstra and others, “Impact of Welfare Benefit sanctioning on food insecurity: a dynamic cross-area study of food bank usage in the UK”, Journal of Social Policy, vol. 47, No. 3 (July 2018), pp. 437–457. Michael Adler, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment? Benefit Sanctions in the UK (Palgrave Pivot, 2018). House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee, “Benefit sanctions”. Nineteenth Report of Session 2017–2019, p. 3. United Kingdom Government, Government Transformation Strategy, 9 February 2017, p. 4. Department for Work and Pensions, Universal Credit: Welfare that Works, November 2010. 13