The Government is in a ‘state of denial' over the damage it is doing through cuts to council funding and its policy on welfare reform, according to a United Nations (UN) report.

In the report, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, said cuts were being made ‘without either measuring or accounting for their broader impact … people are being pushed to much more expensive services that can't turn them away, like accident and emergency rooms'.