In his damning report on extreme poverty and human rights, leading UN poverty expert Philip Alston, describes the already bleak life prospects of millions of children and families as a "social calamity".
In the final version of the report, which follows his visit to the UK in November 2018, the special rapporteur compares welfare changes to the Victorian workhouse movement.
And he describes the results of the government's "austerity experiment" as now "crystal clear" - with 14 million people and four million children in poverty.
Calling for a "new vision" that "embodies compassion to end the unnecessary hardship", Alston adds: "The government's ‘work not welfare' mantra conveys the message that individuals and families can seek charity but that the state will no longer provide the basic social safety net to which all political parties had been committed since 1945.
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