SDLP MLAs will call on the Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey to bring forward a plan to reverse the £20 per week Universal Credit cut which will see hard pressed households across the North lose out on £1040 per week.
The cut, introduced by the Conservative government and set to be implemented by the Sinn Féin Minister, comes at the end of the furlough scheme, when national insurance rates are rising and during a surge in utility prices stretching the budgets of many families to breaking point.
Speaking ahead of an SDLP motion in the Assembly today, Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan said: “Families across the North are facing into a cost of living crisis.
“The end of the Furlough scheme, the surge in utility prices and the increase in national insurance have made this an incredibly difficult time for many hard pressed homes.
“The cut to Universal Credit couldn’t come at a worse time when too many people simply can’t afford to lose £1040 from their yearly income.
“The loss of £20 per week will mean parents going without meals to make sure their children have enough to eat.
“It will mean families forced to turn the heating off in the middle of winter, with all the negative health consequences that come with it.
“It is cruel and unjustifiable at a time when we were bailing out golf clubs and royal palaces to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
“We have been calling on the Tories to abandon this course of action but failing a U-Turn in London, Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey needs to put in some hard yards and guarantee that her department will mitigate any cut to people here.
“Sinn Féin MLAs were happy to hand our welfare powers over to the Tories when we needed them most, it’s about time they used those powers to defend people most in need now.”
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