The review, which will also look into the UK’s equal rights policies, is part of a regular cycle of examinations and will be the first undertaken since 2009.

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESR) has requested further information from the UK government on its welfare changes and unemployment policies as part of a regular cycle of examinations. The findings will be published in June next year.

A UN spokeswoman said the CESCR will be reviewing the UK and six other countries. “It is not an investigation or inquiry launched in response to a particular situation or at the request of a third party,” she pointed out.

The review is carried out under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which the UK is a signatory to. Areas that will be reviewed include:

Just Fair coalition which campaigns for social justice in the UK has met CESCR representatives and welcomed the review, saying that it was timely.

Jamie Burton, the coalition’s chairman, said: “We and many others are concerned about the adverse impact austerity policies have had on the least well off and already marginalised in society, including those in work.”

He added: “In one of the richest countries in the world, people do not have enough food to eat or decent housing to live in. Worst of all, the measures have hit children, single mothers, and people with disabilities the hardest. As the tax credits scandal shows, the public is turning against these policies precisely because they are so unfair.”

The government however was quick to highlight that the review was not an investigation.

A spokesman said: “This is not an investigation but a routine request for information that occurs every few years as part of the periodic reporting process to the UN.

“We are committed to protecting the most vulnerable in society. The UK government continues to support millions of people on benefits with an £80bn working-age welfare safety net in place.”

The UN review is separate from an ongoing investigation by the UN’s Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which is looking at whether the government’s disability benefit reforms breached the rights of disabled people.

Last year United Nations special envoy Raquel Rolnik urged the government to scrap the ‘bedroom tax’ after concluding the “shocking” policy was a “basic breach of the human right to housing”.