DISABLED people in Britain are suffering even more now than they were when a damning report from the United Nations condemned the government for its treatment of them seven years ago.

The UN committee responsible for the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People met in Geneva today to take evidence from British disabled people’s organisations on the government’s response — or lack of it — to its original findings in 2016.

But a report released to coincide with the meeting, compiled by disabled people’s organisations, said the situation had worsened markedly, including through disabled people suffering debt, going hungry and being segregated from society.

Disability Rights UK chief executive Kamran Mallick said: “The evidence is clear, the situation has worsened for disabled people since the report in 2016. Disabled people have and continue to pay with their lives.”

He said the government “has made no attempt to respond in a positive way to the findings.”

A recent report by a disabled people-led commission in Lewisham found that 20 per cent of respondents didn’t always have access to food and drink, could not wash (or be washed) regularly and couldn’t go to the toilet when needed.

Disabled people are having to choose between going into debt and cancelling their care.

Dr Jim Elder-Woodward, convener of Inclusion Scotland, said: “We are living in dire circumstances, isolated, trapped at home or in institutions; cold, hungry and humiliated.”

The report warns that new benefit sanctions planned by the government could mean “further grave and systematic rights violations” for disabled people.