Debate contribution: Social Security Reform and Economic Inactivity
Debate contribution by Ms Kellie Armstrong on .
- MLA
- Ms Kellie Armstrong
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 1 April 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Social Security Reform and Economic Inactivity
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4877187
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I may not take all of those minutes. There appears to be clear consensus on all sides of the House that the UK Government are imposing a reform of benefits that will have a negative impact on people with disabilities in Northern Ireland and that it is wrong. Their cuts will force our people into poverty and, as Andy Allen said, make life harder. The cuts are more about saving money than saving people. Social security is now social insecurity for many citizens who have a disability. Today, in advance of the debate, my colleague Sian Mulholland MLA facilitated a meeting with people with disabilities and organisations to hear at first hand their lived experience. That was more consultation than the Labour Government had with people who have disabilities who live in Northern Ireland. I remind Members that social security is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland, but we retain parity because, to be frank, we cannot afford not to. Alliance voted against welfare reform in Westminster. It is not a system of our design, but it is one that we have sought to improve through mitigations and by ensuring that people with lived experience are given a voice. In the debate, we all agreed that the UK Government should not take the reform forward and should fix the problem. We should not raise the false hope that the Northern Ireland Assembly can do the fix by itself. Significant changes to the welfare system are being brought forward by Labour without appropriate consultation or any consideration of an impact assessment, which has been confirmed by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). No impact assessment has been done to consider the impact on people across the UK, particularly in Northern Ireland. While Westminster does not have to consider the impact on section 75 groups, we do. Any impact assessment should consider the negative impacts and what positive actions will need to be taken to reduce the harm that will be caused. If only the Chancellor respected the devolved regions and had consulted us in advance, perhaps we could have had solutions in place. During the debate, I noted that the Department for Communities has put the DWP consultation on the reforms on its website. Should we not do our own consultation? We do not know, as the Minister has confirmed, how many people in Northern Ireland this will impact, how much it will cost them and what harm will be caused. We can all guess. We can all speak to people with disabilities and understand their fears. Indeed, one of the people whom we spoke to today said that they were not able to sleep, that they were living in fear and that they did not know what their future would hold. I would like to explain to everyone in the House that 638 people have died under the current system, one because of a work capability assessment. The person received a letter asking them to go for an assessment, and they could not cope with it. People are taking their lives because of the stress and the lack of dignity in how they are treated by the system.
I absolutely agree with Mrs Dillon. As part of assessing the impacts, we need to understand what happens when the support is removed. Do people fall back more on our health system? Do people fall back more on other benefits? What will happen to our people in Northern Ireland? One of our concerns is that the Green Paper says that GB will continue to receive investment in employment programmes but we may not. It clearly states that Westminster sees this as a devolved issue and that we therefore need to find resources to address the harm that they will cause to our fellow citizens. We could invest in a financial mitigation package, but where will the money come from? Health takes up over 50% of our Budget. Where will we get the money? Will we close wards? We could increase investment in supported employment, but, given how much the community and voluntary sector has had its core and operational costs cut by most Departments and with no clear replacement for European social fund funding, who will deliver those programmes? It is time that we got real. Instead of using negative language such as "abusing the system" or "fraud" when speaking about people on benefits, how about we now all commit to focusing on the potential for people who can work to join our workforce? How about recognising that it is not a binary choice to be in work or on benefits but about giving our friends, family and neighbours support to have a decent standard of living that will, in turn, give them the capacity and confidence to be employed? As has been said, if we want more people to be in work, we need to set up the structures to enable them to go to work. Westminster has discussed the programmes that it intends to deliver; it is now over to Communities and the Department for the Economy to present their actions. Those actions must be decided in partnership with the people on whom they impact the most. Our system is broken, and Labour is making it worse. It is more of a lack-of-care system than a welfare system. Irrespective of the amendments that were tabled today, the House is sending a clear signal to Westminster that its welfare reform proposals will harm people who live in Northern Ireland. Because of that, we in Alliance ask all parties to support our motion and send a united, clear message to the Government that they cannot take a unilateral decision that will harm our people, friends and families. As my colleague Sian Mulholland stated earlier in the debate, we need a different path. We need to stop asking, "Who deserves support?" and start asking, "What support helps people to thrive?". That is why the motion calls for a rejection of the Government's punitive approach; a UK-wide commission to shape real, compassionate solutions to economic inactivity among disabled people; a focus on progressive means of generating more revenue for public services, particularly by increasing tax on the superwealthy; and a clear signal from the Assembly that Northern Ireland will not be punished for needing more support. As Sian said, when we build policy out of fear, we sow division, but, when we build out of care, we strengthen society, our economy and our future. To reiterate, I want a society in which we see disabled people not as burdens but as people with potential and in which carers are supported, not sacrificed. Welfare is one of the few levers that we have to lift people out of poverty. Let us not break it just when people need it the most. I ask that we all send this clear message to the Chancellor: you are not going to save your Budget by breaking the backs of people with disabilities.
1,170 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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