AQW 28459/22-27

Ms Sian Mulholland
Alliance Party
North Antrim

Tabled Date: 09/06/2025
Answered On Date: 29/08/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities to detail any analysis his Department has made of the projection that 15,000 more people in Northern Ireland will face hunger and hardship by 2029/30 as a result of the UK Government’s disability benefit reforms, as modelled in the WPI Economics June 2025 briefing for Trussell.

Answer:

Since publication of the UK Government’s Green Paper ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working’ my officials have been working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions to assess the proposed changes and their implications for Northern Ireland.

Following the introduction of the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill in Parliament, the UK Government made several concessions which significantly changed the impacts of its original proposals. This included a commitment to remove the clauses relating to the Personal Independence Payment changes in their entirety. It was also announced that the reforms to Universal Credit would impact only new claimants.

Analysis of the projected impacts of the proposed changes in the Bill, as it stood on 30 June 2025, is available at https://www.communities-ni.gov.uk/publications/universal-credit-and-personal-independence-payment-bill-impact-analysis-tables-30-june-2025.