Northern Ireland's £7 billion UK-funded benefits bill gives 'context' to NI finances - DUP

The sum includes all benefits payments, including pensions. Last week the Irish government announced spending of £680m on cross-border projects and infrastructure in Northern Ireland including Casement Park and the A5.

Responding to a question from the News Letter, the Department for Communities said its total welfare spend in Northern Ireland on state pension and benefits in each of the latest 3 financial years was as follows:

- 2020/21 £6.9 billion

- 2021/22 £7.1 billion

- 2022/23 £7.6 billion

The spending is entirely funded by HM Treasury.

DUP MLA Diane Forsythe MLA said, “Whilst £680million from the Republic of Ireland’s Shared Island initiative was announced to a significant fanfare, these figures give context and perspective to the reality of Northern Ireland’s finances.

“The figures for pensions and benefits alone are 11 times higher than that cross-border contribution and aren’t some one-off scheme but come each year directly to people in Northern Ireland as a result of living within the United Kingdom. These figures also don’t include the Block Grant which funds public services across Northern Ireland.

“Whilst special announcements of cross-border funding on issues that benefit both Northern Ireland and the Republic are welcome, they are a small fraction of contribution we receive from HM Treasury on a recurring basis.”

Social security has always been devolved to Northern Ireland, but Stormont doesn’t raise the funds itself as it has limited taxation powers. However some benefits such as tax credits are still controlled by Westminister.

Northern Ireland maintains ‘parity’ with social security, child maintenance, and pensions systems in Great Britain. In practice, this limits the ability of the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly to diverge from the UK Government benefits policy – which is delivered here by the Department for Communities.

A ‘mitigation package’ of measures was put in place in 2016 which enables the Northern Ireland Executive to reduce the impact of the UK Government’s welfare reforms on people in Northern Ireland with a series of additional payments and other measures. These were due to expire in March 2020, but the Northern Ireland Executive is continuing to make contingency payments.

In the ‘Fresh Start’ agreement in 2015, the executive committed £585 million over four years to the welfare mitigations package.