ABSTRACT
This chapter engages with the vulnerability approach to assess UK welfare reforms implemented between 2010 and 2016, and their impact on economic and social rights. It provides a theoretical reflection of the contribution of the notion of situational vulnerability to social rights understood as the material conditions of freedom in a given community or society. The chapter shows how austerity policies implemented in the UK since 2010 increased individuals’ vulnerability by fuelling material inequality and curtailing the welfare state. Ideological austerity eroded some of the fundamental pillars of a fair society. Welfare reforms and local government funding cuts disproportionately affected those who need society’s protection the most. Inequality is closely linked to the poverty premium – that is, the fact that poorer people pay more for essential goods and services. A situational understanding of vulnerability can help to rethink equality and social rights.
