AQW 4681/22-27

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 13/10/2022
Answered On Date: 16/05/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities what measures she has taken to ensure welfare mitigation measures are protected in the absence of an Executive post 28 October 2022.

Answer:

On 31 January 2022 the Assembly approved the Welfare Supplementary Payment (Extension) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022. This legislation extended the period for which all Welfare Supplementary Payments, excluding the Social Sector Size Criteria, could be paid up to 31 March 2025. Further legislation extended the Social Sector Size Criteria mitigation payments for an indefinite period.

The Welfare Supplementary Payments (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 introduced a statutory requirement on my Department to produce a report setting out an assessment of the operation of each of the ongoing Welfare Supplementary Payment schemes by 31 March 2025.