Stormont can't afford £150m it would need to mitigate benefit cuts, says DUP minister Lyons
Stormont doesn’t have the cash to help the people of Northern Ireland deal with new benefit cuts, an Assembly minister has said.
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons made the comment after Westminster introduced a major shake-up of the benefits system, including reducing the number of people eligible for the disability benefit Personal Independence Payment.
Previous UK-wide benefit cuts, such as the bedroom tax and benefit cap, have been mitigated by the Assembly, but My Lyons says doing so now would cost the Assembly £150m – and it doesn’t have that kind of cash to spare.
“We will take time to analyse this, but we do have to keep in mind as well, we’re talking about significant sums of money,” he said on Tuesday (18th).
“If these are savings of around £5bn for the UK as a whole, on population basis alone we’re talking over £150m for Northern Ireland.
“Those aren’t resources that we have at our disposal so we will continue to engage with the government to see which of these changes will apply in Northern Ireland and continue to make the case to make sure that those in need are protected at the same time as protecting tax payers as well.”
He added: “First of all we need to work out exactly what the implications are for Northern Ireland, but I will be very upfront and recognise the potential cost of these changes is significant and those aren’t resources that we have.
“What I will be wanting to do is engage with the government, take part in that process of consultation as well, and my objective is to make sure that we put the best argument forward to the government because we simply don’t have the resources here in Northern Ireland to mitigate against those changes.”
Speaking in the House of Commons, DUP leader Gavin Robinson MP accused the government of targeting vulnerable people.
“First it was pensioners and their winter fuel allowance,” he said. “Then it was WASPI women and broken promises, now it is the sick and the vulnerable.
“We believe in protecting the taxpayer, but protecting those who need our support the most.”
He also asked Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall how she could rationalise “on the one hand accepting that people’s health and wellbeing can fluctuate”, while on the other cutting disability benefits.
First Minister Michelle O’Neill said she plans to challenge the government over the changes, describing them as “political choices being made in London that are impacting detrimentally on our lives here, and we don’t have a say in that”.
A Downing Street spokesman this week said Prime Minister Keir Starmer is clear the UK’s social security system is “broken” and “holding our people back and holding the country back”.
But the cuts have proved controversial with claimants who fear losing their benefits, as well as many of Labour’s own politicians.
The changes will make it harder for people with less severe conditions to claim disability payments, while extra benefit payments for health conditions will also be frozen for current claimants and nearly halved for new applicants.
Ms Kendall said the overhaul will create a more "pro-work system" to encourage people to take up jobs.
Spending on health and disability benefits has ballooned since the Covid pandemic, currently hitting £65bn per year.