NI Conservatives’ social development spokesman, Trevor Ringland, has welcomed Nelson McCausland’s announcement that certain elements of welfare reform will be tailored to Northern Ireland.
“While it is absolutely necessary that the substance of welfare reform is retained and that parity is preserved, it has always been clear that the executive can address some of our unique circumstances, by looking at how the bill is administered”, Trevor explained. “It’s a tragedy that there are 65,000 children, in Northern Ireland alone, who live in homes where no-one has ever worked. People have been parked on DLA for years, with no mechanism to establish whether their conditions have improved.”
“The sad truth is that long term benefit dependency destroys lives and it destroys our society, leading to higher levels of personal debt, addiction and crime, as well as creating a culture of hopelessness within many of our communities. Previous administrations have promised to revolutionise this area, but the current government is seeing through root and branch reforms, even though the process isn’t easy.”
“Northern Ireland’s welfare dependency is the worst in the UK, so we need reform most urgently of all. This isn’t about punishing people, or taking away benefits for the sake of it. It is about targeting help where it is most needed, ensuring fairness and, most of all, helping to change a dependency culture which is devastating communities, individuals and families.”