SDLP Social Justice spokesperson Mark H Durkan has called on the Communities Minister to immediately set out a plan to end poverty.
It comes after a BBC Spotlight ‘Covid and Hardship’ programme which aired last night and laid bare the hardship people have been subjected to throughout the pandemic and the inadequacy and failure of the support available to them.
The Foyle MLA, a member of the Committee for Communities, said: “The true extent of the hardship people have faced during the pandemic was laid bare by BBC Spotlight’s powerful programme.
“Politicians can talk about the shocking cases they encounter in their case work, but nothing is as stark as seeing and hearing from the people behind the statistics and realising how individuals and families are stretched beyond endurance as they struggle to meet the basics.
“This should be a wakeup call for the Communities Minister that people are not getting the support they need.
“While Deirdre Hargey tries to wash her hands by blaming the UK Government, the fact is that today her department has no detailed plan to end poverty, hasn’t updated its child poverty strategy since 2016, and is every day failing the very communities that her department is supposed to be helping.
“The Minister blames the UK Government for a lack of funding but she cannot wash her hands of responsibility for the litany of poorly designed and administered schemes from her department.
“The failure of the COVID-19 Discretionary Payment Scheme is a prime example – the Minister handed back £2 million of unspent funds that could have provided a lifeline for those people we saw on BBC Spotlight and many others like them.
“As well as a lack of awareness among the families of the scheme, the Minister admitted in an answer to me that just 2% of payments from the scheme were for £500 or more.
“The prohibitively low £20,405 income threshold to access the support and the unnecessarily intrusive interrogations applicants then face is followed by a measly average payment of just £147.67.
“Over one year on, we are still awaiting the Anti-Poverty Strategy promised in New Decade, New Approach.
“It should be top of the Executive’s priorities, and informing our response to the pandemic.
“Families need a strong social security safety net, but the Minister is yet to publish the legislation for further welfare mitigations and commit to topping up the losses families are facing through the bedroom tax, the benefit cap and the cruel two-child tax credit rule.”
“Likewise, the numbers claiming Universal Credit have sky rocketed and are set to rise even further when furlough ends.
“Yet the Communities Minister’s party colleague, the Finance Minister, has allocated no funds whatsoever to recruit the planned 900 staff to deal with the increase in claimsff.
“This is putting more pressure on existing staff and risking increasing the already intolerable 5 week wait for the first payment, storing up more problems for these people and for society in the future.
“Last night’s show was heart-breaking but these families and the thousands like them deserve more than sympathy and avoiding responsibility:
“The Minister needs to decide if hers is the Department for Communities or the Department against Communities and outline her plans to end the hardship that tens of thousands of people currently endure.”
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