Minister must decide on welfare mitigation

The Department (DfC) confirmed that as things stand, the mitigation payments - designed to offset the worst effects of welfare reform - will end by April, 2020.

Sinn Fein Foyle MLA, Karen Mullan, had called on DfC to issue an urgent response following the conclusions of a report on Welfare Reform by the NI Auditor General, Kieran Donnelly.

Mr. Donnelly’s report warns that the full impact of welfare reforms has not yet been felt here and that some claimants may face significant hardships when current mitigation measures run out.

The Westminster government introduced extensive welfare reforms in NI in 2016, with Assembly consent, following the Fresh Start Agreement. This included £585 million from the NI block grant for the four years ending March 2020 to fund a mitigation package to “top-up” reductions in benefit payments.

Mr Donnelly said: “When the mitigation schemes end, there is a risk that we will see the same hardship and increase in the demand for foodbanks, reported elsewhere in the UK. The Department’s current review of mitigations should focus on what actions need to be taken to address this very real risk.”

Welfare reforms of the benefit system include the implementation of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Universal Credit. In terms of the mitigations, the report confirmed that £136 million of the £213 million in payments allocated for 2016-17 and 2017-18 has not been spent due to various factors.

Commenting after her party met with DfCs senior management team, the Foyle MLA said: “The Auditor’s report was a clear vindication of the £585 million top-up package that my party fought for in order to protect the most vulnerable from the Tory Welfare cuts agenda. His report painted a stark picture of what the alternative would have been, warning that without these protections we would be facing the same kind of increased hardship and foodbank use that is happening in Britain.

“Sinn Féin met with the Department to urge them to respond to the auditor’s report as quickly as possible. It is important that happens because the current mitigation package is due to end in 2020, so forward planning needs to take place now. From our perspective, the Sinn Féin position is unambiguous. We will continue to oppose the welfare cuts agenda in its entirety. It is clearly not fit for purpose and should be scrapped completely.

“Protecting the most vulnerable will remain our key objective, whether that is by mitigating it where possible or by unpicking the entire disastrous Tory welfare agenda.”

Responding, a DfC spokesperson confirmed to the ‘Journal’: “The legislation governing Mitigation Payments in accordance with the terms of the Fresh Start Agreement, provides that mitigation payments will end in March, 2020. Decisions on the provision of future mitigation measures from April, 2020 will be a matter for incoming ministers. In the meantime, the Department will continue to operate and plan on the basis of the existing agreement and legislation.”