A/HRC/41/39/Add.1 have also been some of the hardest hit by austerity measures. As a result of changes to benefits and taxes since 2010, some families with disabilities are projected to lose £11,000 on average by 2021–2022, more than 30 per cent of their annual net income. 101 Persons with disabilities told the Special Rapporteur repeatedly about benefits assessments that were superficial, dismissive, and contradicted the advice of their doctor. 77. Those with disabilities are also highly vulnerable to cuts in local government services, particularly within social care, which has left them shouldering more of the costs of their care. This has driven many families with a person with a disability to breaking point. D. Older persons 78. Targeted efforts in the past two decades saw pensioner poverty drop by half to 13 per cent in 2012–2013. But despite the protections of the triple lock, pensioner poverty has begun to rise and by 2016–2017 reached 16 per cent, with 330,000 additional pensioners below the poverty line. The Housing Benefit has failed to keep up with actual rents, driving a rise in poverty among pensioners who rent. 102 79. An abrupt and poorly implemented change in the State pension age for women from 60 to 66 has severely and unconscionably penalized those who were on the cusp of retirement and who had well-founded expectations of entering the next phase of their lives. And a change, quietly announced in January 2019, means pensioners with a partner below the retirement age of 65 would need to apply for UC instead of Pension Credit, a potential loss of £7,000 per year in support.103 80. Human Rights Watch found in 2019 that older people in England are at risk of being unable to access assistance needed to live independent, dignified lives due to uneven social services assessments, pointing to pressure on local authorities to reduce social care costs and a 140 per cent increase in social care complaints since 2010.104 E. Ethnic minority groups 81. Ethnic minorities are at a higher risk of becoming homeless, have poorer access to health care and experience higher rates of infant mortality. Black people and people from a South Asian background are the most likely to live in poverty and deprivation, 105 yet as a result of changes to taxes, benefits and public spending from 2010 to 2020, Black and Asian households in the lowest fifth of incomes will experience the largest average drop in living standards, about 20 per cent. 106 In England and Scotland, changes to public spending from 2010–2011 to 2021–2022 will fall the hardest on Black households.107 82. Gypsy, Roma and Travellers, who generally face multiple disadvantages, may be put at particular risk by “digital by default” UC and by benefit cuts due to their larger family sizes, discrimination and educational barriers.108 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 Portes and Reed, The Cumulative Impact of Tax and Welfare Reform. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, UK Poverty 2018, pp. 13–14 and 39–40. Parliament, “Pensions update: written statement – HCWS1239”, 14 January 2019. Human Rights Watch, “Unmet needs: improper social care assessments for older people in England”, 9 January 2019. Equality and Human Rights Commission, Is Britain Fairer? p. 10. Women’s Budget Group and Runnymede Trust, Intersecting Inequalities: The Impact of Austerity on Black and Minority Ethnic Women in the UK, 2017, p. 10. Reed and Portes, The Cumulative Impact on Living Standards of Public Spending Changes, p. 10. Submission by The Traveller Movement. Available at www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Poverty/Pages/UKVisitSubmissions.aspx. 17