The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said that her Autumn Budget was one based on ‘the right choices for a fairer, stronger, and more secure Britain.’ It is a Budget which she says, ‘will bring down inflation and provide immediate relief for families’ and is based on ‘fair taxes, strong public services and a stable economy.’
These important aims and measures to address the ongoing cost-of-living crisis are to be welcomed. Measures such as freezing rail fares, reducing household energy bills and not increasing prescription charges in England have the potential to make a real impact on people’s day to day costs.
As a UK civil society organisation that works to achieve lasting, positive change through promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR), Just Fair has examined how the Budget adds up in terms of taking a step towards meeting the UK’s ESCR obligations.
This blog explores three specific policy areas – tax, social security, and the National Minimum Wage – to highlight opportunities for progress through the application of ESCR. These arguments are likely to extend to other areas.
ESCR in the UK
ESCR obligations are set out in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which the UK ratified in 1976. Under this Covenant, the UK has an obligation to invest its maximum available resources in the progressive realisation of these rights. This means taxation must be progressive and generate sufficient funds for investment in ESCR – rights which mean everyone has access to healthcare, an adequate standard of living with enough food, clothing and decent housing, as well as access to education, decent work and a social security system which provides a safety net.
The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN CESCR) monitors implementation of the Covenant. In March 2025 the Committee concluded its seventh periodic review of the UK and issued its concluding observations which included a series of recommendations for actions to be taken by the UK Government. You can read Just Fair’s detailed analysis of these recommendations here.
Cost of living and tax
In its concluding observations, UN CESCR expressed concern that UK fiscal policy ‘is not effectively addressing income inequality or reducing poverty while also hindering the mobilisation of the maximum resources for the implementation of Covenant rights.’ The Committee expressed further concern that there was insufficient social spending to realise ESCR.
UN CESCR specifically called on the UK Government to adopt a more ‘efficient, progressive and socially just fiscal policy’ to ‘broaden the tax base and fiscal space for realising ESCR.’
Concerns about the UK Government’s approach are not limited to this UN Committee. Some economists have also highlighted that the tax system is not working, is acting a barrier to growth, and that the public service system is not working. They argue that reform of the tax system is needed for the benefit of all.
Following the Budget, the New Economics Foundation warned that the tax changes announced by the Chancellor will not improve living standards. Meanwhile, Tax Justice UK argue that the Chancellor’s so-called ‘mansion tax’ does not go far enough in taxing the wealthy.
Tax Justice UK have also expressed concern that continuation of a freeze on personal tax thresholds places ‘the responsibility on ordinary people to contribute more tax, while the extreme wealth of the super-rich remains largely untouched.’ UNISON also highlighted that this freeze means that public sector workers such as nurses, paramedics and social workers are paying the higher rate of tax in the same tax band as ‘CEOs and corporate lawyers.’
Persisting with the income tax threshold freeze also ignores a direct recommendation made to the UK Government by UN CESCR in March 2025 that the freeze should be removed.
Social security
We welcomed the lifting of the two-child limit, which is consistent with a recommendation made by UN CESCR to do so.
However, it is worth noting that despite the Chancellor’s intention to provide ‘immediate’ relief, this measure will not take effect until April 2026. The arguments made for the removal of the policy, rightly made by the Chancellor – that children should not be made to ‘bear the brunt’ of family circumstances or that a ‘vile policy known as the rape clause’ should not remain in place – were just as applicable at the time of the 2024 Budget, and indeed when current the UK Government took office.
That this policy is finally being removed is a testament to the tenacity and campaigning of civil society organisations and groups such as the End Child Poverty Coalition – of which Just Fair is a member – who have long fought for this outcome.
UN CESCR also recommended that the benefit cap be lifted. The failure to do so has been noted by the Women’s Budget Group as likely to limit the relief felt by some families from the removal of the two-child limit. They also point out that the ‘failure to uplift local housing allowance in line with actual rent costs was also a missed opportunity to tackle one of the biggest costs facing families.’
Meanwhile Disability Rights UK remind us that Disabled people make up three-quarters of people who use foodbanks and highlight that the changes to the Motability scheme are punitive, placing the ‘burden and blame on Disabled people’ instead of investing in accessible public transport and workplaces.
It is notable that the increasing political hostility and rhetoric towards Disabled people continues despite a specific joint communication from the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities and the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, which sets out concerns that ‘fiscal considerations’ may have been put before the UK Government’s human rights obligations to Disabled people in its most recent attempts to undertaken welfare ‘reforms.’
National Minimum Wage
The increase to the National Minimum Wage, including for young people, appears to be a positive measure in isolation, especially as Women’s Budget Group note that women are twice as likely as men to be in low paid work.
However, reports suggest that Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts for National Minimum Wage increases may mean that that by 2030 a full-time salary on the minimum wage would be only approximately £400 lower than the student loan repayment threshold, which is being frozen until 2030. This would mean that graduates in England may have to begin paying these loans while earning only slightly above the national minimum wage.
UN CESCR recommended in 2016 that ‘all necessary steps were taken to reduce higher education fees, with a view to making higher education equally accessible to all, in accordance with capacity, and by progressively introducing free higher education.’ By contrast, the UK Government has announced plans to increase some tuition fees for higher education.
This may illustrate broader concerns about policy being developed by the UK Government in the absence of wider, joined up thinking underpinned by rights considerations. In this instance, it would require policy to be developed which actively promotes the rights to education, work and just and favourable conditions of work without discrimination.
Economic policy underpinned by rights
While the stated desire for a fair Budget which takes steps to address the cost of living and invest in public services is commendable, the overarching goal of pursuing economic growth bound by strict self-imposed fiscal rules – without a foundation in rights – risks leaving policies disjointed and lacking.
Evidence indicates that a prevailing economic system that prioritises growth over wellbeing deepens inequality and insecurity, hindering long-term, meaningful improvements in peoples’ lives. In the UK (and elsewhere) this is creating conditions for the growing influence of far-right populist movements, as social cohesion and trust in democracy are eroded.
A different approach is required – as the Equality Trust noted the Budget is ‘just not enough for the crises we’re in.’ Economic policy must be designed to support the fulfilment of human rights, not override them. At the heart of this is the need for a rights-based framework centred on social protection – one that treats access to housing, healthcare, and income security as fundamental rights, rather than optional outcomes of growth-focused economic policy. This is particularly critical in a context when people are experiencing multiple and interconnected factors which lead to poverty and inequality – people who simply cannot wait for the promised day when growth will be achieved, and the work of redistribution can begin.
Moving towards progressive, socially protective reform
The Prime Minister has warned of further ‘reforms’ to the welfare system. At Just Fair we believe that there can be no progressive, socially protective reform in the absence of embedded ESCR protections. In the first instance, this means complying with UN CESCR’s recommendations. It means policy being grounded and underpinned by rights.
Successfully implementing good policy involves putting in the groundwork first. To meaningfully address issues and make improvements, there is a need to be deeply informed about the reality of people’s lives and experiences, as well as the underlying context for reform. UN CESCR identified as priority recommendations that the UK Government should:
- Conduct an independent assessment of the cumulative impact of the austerity measures introduced since 2010 on ESCR, focusing on disadvantaged groups, regional disparities and the effects of subsequent policy shifts
- Assess the impact of welfare reforms introduced since 2010 on the most disadvantage groups and to take corrective measures
We call on the UK Government to take a positive step forward with this, before any further ‘reforms’ are tabled, and carry out the outstanding cumulative impact assessments recommended by UN CESCR.
Only armed with that information and a rights-based approach can the UK Government move forward, positively and progressively, to meet their stated aim of a fair approach and work towards a more just society across the UK.
Background image by Pietro Soldi
