AQW 1915/17-22
Miss Rachel Woods
Green Party
North Down
Tabled Date: 11/02/2020
Answered On Date: 28/02/2020
Priority Written: No
Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities, pursuant to AQW 514/17-22, for a breakdown of the £40.4m forecasted costs for continuing to deliver the existing welfare mitigation schemes in 2020/21 and 2021/22.
Answer:
The Department has submitted bids to Department of Finance to secure the funding required to continue existing Mitigation payments beyond 31st March 2020. The Department’s initial bid submitted to the Department of Finance for 2020/21 and 2021/22 totalled £40.4m per year. This bid was revised on 24th January 2020 to £41.7m in 2020/21 and £42m in 2021/22. This revised forecast reflects the latest projections in respect of the impact of updated caseloads for Social Sector Size Criteria and Benefit Cap mitigations and associated administration costs. A breakdown of the Department’s revised bid to continue existing Mitigation payments beyond 31st March 2020 is provided in the following table. Forecast costs to continue existing Mitigation payments beyond 31st March 2020 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | | (£m) | (£m) | Social Sector Size Criteria | 23.3 | 23.6 | Benefit Cap | 3.5 | 3.5 | Children transferring from DLA to PIP | 5.8 | 5.8 | Disability related mitigations | 5.1 | 5.1 | Administration and IT Costs | 4 | 4 | Total Forecast Costs | 41.7 | 42 |
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