Derry recipients of RoI familycredits has trebled in six years

In 2012 just seven people who were working in the South but living in Derry were receiving Working Family Payments (WFP), a welfare payment formerly known as Family Income Supplement (FIS), which is a weekly tax-free payment for employees on low earnings with children.

This doubled to 14 in 2012, and rose to 23 in 2015, before falling back to 20 last year.

Figures newly released by the southern Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty, however, have confirmed that the number of claimants in the North remains tiny.

Last year there was just one claimant in Antrim, with 16 in Tyrone, 16 in Armagh, 20 in Derry, 27 in Fermanagh and 43 in Down, or 123 in total. Leitrim, with 402 recipients, had three times as many.