A/HRC/41/39/Add.1 housing in predominantly Catholic areas,112 and the Northern Ireland Equality Commission found that Catholics experience the longest wait times for social housing among all religious groups.113 B. Scotland 89. Scotland, despite having the lowest poverty rates in the United Kingdom, 114 has the lowest life expectancy 115 and pockets of profound poverty. The Special Rapporteur met with children in Glasgow’s North East neighbourhood where, according to one local councillor, 48 per cent of people are out of work, life expectancy is six years lower than the national average, about half of families are single-parent households and about a third of households lack an Internet connection. 90. Scotland has recently put in place ambitious schemes for addressing poverty, including the Fairer Scotland Action Plan and the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan. It has also used newly devolved powers to establish a promising social security system, guided by the principles of dignity and social security as a human right and co-designed with claimants on the basis of evidence. The system eschews sanctions entirely and, in contrast to UC, is decidedly not digital by default. Rather, the stated goal is to make benefits equally accessible however people want to access them. 91. It is too soon to say whether these steps – and Scotland’s new powers of taxation – will make a difference for people in poverty. However, it is clear that there is still a real accountability gap which can and should be addressed. The Social Security (Scotland) Act of 2018 provides no redress for violations of the right to social security. But if the compelling recommendations made by the First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership 116 are adopted, and if the Scottish Government acts swiftly on its commitment to incorporate the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scottish law, these steps will make a huge difference. C. Wales 92. Wales faces the highest relative poverty rate in the United Kingdom, with almost one in four people living in relative income poverty. 117 Twenty-five per cent of jobs pay below minimum wage.118 There is wide consensus among stakeholders that benefit changes are one of the structural causes behind the increase in poverty, rough sleeping and homelessness in Wales.119 93. The Welsh Government has shifted its focus to increasing economic prosperity and employment as the gateway to poverty reduction. A poverty-specific action plan and the post of Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty were scrapped in 2017. The new Prosperity for All Strategy, however, has no strategic focus or ministerial responsibility for poverty reduction, and lacks clear performance targets and progress indicators. 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 Participation and Practice of Rights, “Build Homes Now! Briefing for UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston”, November 2018. Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, Statement on Key Inequalities in Housing and Communities in Northern Ireland, April 2017. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, “Poverty levels and trends in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland” (n.d.). Office for National Statistics, “National life tables, UK: 2015 to 2017”, 25 September 2018. First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership, “Recommendations for a new human rights framework to improve people’s lives” 10 December 2018. Welsh Government, “Poverty statistics”, available at https://gweddill.gov.wales/statistics-andresearch/households-below-average-income/?lang=en. IHS Markit, “Living Wage Research for KPMG: 2017 Report”. National Assembly for Wales, Life on the Streets: Preventing and Tackling Rough Sleeping in Wales, April 2018, pp. 33–34 and 36. 19