16 April 2019
Welfare – we must protect the protections
I sincerely hope that the current discussions with the department and the other parties will bear fruit in terms of a consensus around this issue and the need to agree a new mitigation package now. This is much too important an issue to be used as apolitical football.
As Sinn Féin Welfare spokesperson I have seen the positive impact that the north’s unique benefit top-up payments have had since they were introduced.
The £585 million package, secured as part of the Fresh Start Agreement, did not defeat the malignant Tory agenda of welfare cuts, but they have significantly reduced the punitive impact of it here.
In recent weeks, both the Department for Communities and Auditor General have demonstrated just how beneficial the mitigation package has been in terms of protecting the most vulnerable in this society.
They have shown how almost 40,000 tenants here do not pay Bedroom Tax as a result of the mitigations. How families have been protected from the Benefit Cap and how many others have benefited from a range of other supplementary payments, greatly reducing the hardship caused by British Tory cuts to the Welfare system.
And while the positive impact has been highlighted, the department, the auditor, academics and aid groups have also all warned about the consequences of failing to continue with such bespoke protections here.
They are absolutely clear that, to do so, would result in the same kind of increase in child poverty, food bank use, rent arrears and evictions that is being witnessed in Britain.
We cannot allow that to happen and preventing it is a challenge that now faces us all as political representatives.
The cause and the origin of these cuts are, of course, the Tory government in London which is absolutely wedded to its ongoing assault on the Welfare system.
It has always been Sinn Féin’s position that the best bulwark against this destructive agenda is a reformed power-sharing government at Stormont. This week we launch our policy proposals for an Anti-Poverty Strategy which a new administration could take forward.
But even in the absence of an Assembly, there is still an opportunity for the political parties to secure a continuation of the North’s unique benefit top-up payments.
This has been confirmed by the departmental review which crucially acknowledges that mitigations can be continued beyond March 2020 within the existing legislation.
That provides a firm basis for cross-party agreement on a second phase of mitigations and I have already had discussions with the other parties towards that aim.
Sinn Féin is also involved in ongoing discussions with the department during which we are pressing for work to now begin on a second mitigation package.
I very much welcome the fact that campaigners and those working at the front line of the benefits system are making a similar case. They rightfully highlight the positive impact that the top-ups have had while warning about the disastrous consequences for the most vulnerable if they are suddenly ended next March.
I sincerely hope that the current discussions with the department and the other parties will bear fruit in terms of a consensus around this issue and the need to agree a new mitigation package now. This is much too important an issue to be used as apolitical football.
Protecting the most vulnerable is a crucial duty of any administration so it is vital that we continue to oppose the British Government policies of welfare cuts – policies which they show no sign of ending – while also providing as much help as possible for those impacted by the Tory assault on the benefits system.