Budget dispute in numbers
The Department of Finance and Personnel maintains that refusing to implement welfare reform will result in £604 million in spending cuts in 2015-2016. This refers to funding which the Executive would have to find to meet commitments under the Stormont House Agreement.
This includes £200 million to pay for voluntary redundancies in the Civil Service. Ministers also expected to free up a combined total of £214 million from cancelled charges and loan repayments to the Treasury.
The Executive had planned to borrow £100 million for infrastructure projects. Around £90 million is needed to maintain current levels of welfare spending and to set up new structures for dealing with the legacy of the Troubles. If the Welfare Reform Bill is halted, ministers will need to source funds from within the existing Budget or else cancel some (or all) of the above projects.
The largest benefit, by a considerable margin, is the state pension, paid out to 311,000 pensioners. 88,000 pensioners receive pension credit (for low incomes) and another 53,000 receive attendance allowance (for severe disabilities). However, most aspects of welfare reform cover working age benefits i.e. to people aged between 16 and 64.
Disability living allowance is received by 122,000 adults of working age.
DLA claimants are due to be transferred to a new, means-tested personal independence payment (PIP). A successful claimant must have experienced difficulties for three months and expect these to last for at least nine months (with exceptions for terminally ill people).
The new ‘universal credit’ benefit will replace six existing benefits: housing benefit; jobseeker’s allowance; working tax credit; child tax credit; employment and support allowance; and income support. Universal credit payments will be gradually reduced as claimants increase their working hours.
Northern Ireland’s exemptions allow for fortnightly payments of universal credit (as opposed to monthly payments in Britain), continued direct payments to landlords, and compensation (until 2021) in situations where claimants expect to lose out under the PIP means tests and the ‘bedroom tax’.
Many claimants apply for more than one benefit depending on their circumstances. At present, around 160,000 people receive tax credits, 117,000 receive employment and support allowance, 44,000 receive jobseeker’s allowance, and 39,000 receive income support.
