Advice NI to lose 45 staff under 'challenging' draft budget

Advice NI said the proposed cuts amounted to a £1.5m funding reduction for the sector

An advice network that has helped deliver the government's Covid-19 hotline could lose 45 staff under proposed welfare cuts.

The Department for Communities (DfC) draft budget includes cuts to welfare reform mitigations and homeless support.

It said the 2020-2021 budget presented "very significant challenges".

The plans are out for consultation and no final decisions have been made, it added.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Stormont has yet to spend £300m earmarked for Covid-19 pressures.

Advice NI said the proposed Department for Communities cuts amounted to a £1.5m funding reduction for the sector.

Bob Stronge, from the organisation, said it had been given no warning of the proposals, which would cut support to Northern Ireland's most vulnerable.

According to an equality impact assessment, the draft budget also makes no allocation for commitments made under the New Decade, New Approach Deal, including:

• changes to legislation to ensure people diagnosed with a terminal illness get "necessary and fast-tracked support"

• £57.7m recommended by the NI Human Rights Commission to support people affected by welfare reform changes

• £28.8m to offset the two-child policy, which caps family child benefits payments to two children only

Speaking to Good Morning Ulster, Mr Stronge said: "My staff were absolutely devastated. They've been working flat-out.

"We have stretched and strained and we've helped with the government Covid-19 community helpline, and to be treated in this way - the sector is very angry about this reduction."

Draft budget will 'intensify hardship'

Ulster University social security expert Dr Ciara Fitzpatrick said, if adopted, the budget would put more people in Northern Ireland into poverty.

The equality impact assessment of the draft budget also found NI would be the only region in the UK without the resources to support people facing unemployment.

Dr Fitzpatrick said: "It absolutely will increase poverty levels here in NI and indeed increase destitution where people will not be able to afford the very basics.

"It's also particularly concerning that they didn't get the extra £31m for staff to deliver Universal Credit and this will increase the waiting time for new claimants."

• Unspent Covid cash could 'get surgery going again'

• Almost £300m funding for Covid pressures 'unspent'

She said claimants having to wait longer for their benefits would "intensify hardship".

In a statement, the DfC said: "It is clear that the draft budget presents very significant challenges for the executive and across departments with a constrained Spending Review outcome, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and an economic crisis.

"The equality impact assessment on the draft budget position is an important part of the decision making process and once finalised will be provided to the Department of Finance to inform the executive's consideration of the final budget allocation."