Derry anti-poverty campaigner Becca Bor rejects ‘false narrative’ of benefits system being ‘too generous’

Ms. Bor, Development Coordinator at the NI Anti-Poverty Network, was speaking during a briefing of the Stormont Communities Committee.

"I think there is a false narrative around the benefits system being ‘too generous, ‘we have too many people on benefits’. I reject that. I think the benefits system is not generous enough because we know that people who are in receipt of Universal Credit do not have enough money at the end of the month to cover their expenditures,” she said.

The Derry-based development worker was speaking after Communities Minister Gordon Lyons told the committee he believed the system was ‘broken’.

“Work is important and we cannot continue on the trajectory that we are on because our welfare system is broken. Our welfare system is out of control.

"We have one of the highest levels of need in terms of welfare of anywhere in the UK. It is growing. It is growing. It is growing. We continue to put more money into it and we are not seeing the results. Clearly the system is broken. Clearly something is not working,” Mr. Lyons said, while briefing MLAs on the North’s Draft Anti-Poverty Strategy consultation report on Thursday.

Asked for her views on the Minister’s comments Ms. Bor said: “I think it is broken but not for the reasons that he thinks it is broken.

“I think it is broken because it doesn't actually guarantee that people's essentials are covered. There is a real penalty for people trying to go into paid employment.

"The thresholds are such that if you lose your housing benefit for going into work for a certain amount you can't actually take that chance.”

During Thursday’s evidence session Mark H. Durkan raised the number of working people experiencing poverty.

"Here in the North 60 per cent of working age adults in poverty are employed. Nearly two thirds of children living in poverty are in households where one adult is in work,” said the SDLP MLA.

Mr. Lyons said that in his view that cohort represents ‘some of the most hard-pressed people in our society right now’.

"They seem to miss out all the time in the support that is available to others,” said the Minister.

He said the Executive needed to lower costs for households, make it easier to heat homes, improve housing stock and help with child care costs.

Addressing the committee Ms. Bor said she believed a 10 per cent reduction in child poverty was ‘absolutely achievable’.

"We know what happens when you don't invest in children in terms of the lifelong impact that that will have, not only on the child, the family, the community, but also on future employment and employability,” she said.

She pointed to policy initiatives such as the delivery of free school meals.

"That is a public health intervention for our children in our society,” she told MLAs, saying it was something that should be ring-fenced.

She spoke of the impact of the cost of £15.50 a week for school dinners on the disposable income available for summer activities and holidays for children facing poverty.