Philip Alston, a UN special rapporteur, said that amassed data on welfare recipient was “waiting to be abused” AYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/GETTY IMAGESScotland is on “a very different trajectory” to the rest of the UK when it comes to social security, according to a UN poverty expert. Philip Alston, a UN special rapporteur, said that the spirit of the welfare state was “alive and humming” north of the border, but was waning elsewhere. Mr Alston, 69, an Australian international human rights law professor, visited Britain last year to produce a report which said that austerity policies introduced in 2010 were continuing to have tragic social consequences. It also claimed that the Scottish government’s attempts to reduce the impact of social security cuts, such as the two-child benefit cap, were not sustainable. However, he told an event at the University of Edinburgh: “Scotland is spending a lot of…

Source: The Times October 02, 2019 23:03 UTC