'Intolerable' levels of poverty warning
HUNDREDS of people and their children will suffer 'intolerable' levels of poverty next year through a delay of major social welfare reforms, Employment & Social Security has warned.
The decision to delay the landmark changes, devised by the Social Welfare Benefits Investigation Committee and due to come in from start of the year, subject to funding, follows talks with Policy & Resources this summer, where the senior committee made clear the money would not be available.
The new reform package would have added a forecast £3.4m. to social welfare spending in the first year, but while Employment & Social Security said it 'reluctantly' accepted funding would be postponed, it was 'deeply concerned' by the consequences.
The SWBIC proposals, amalgamating the supplementary benefit and rent rebate systems, were set to improve the position of around 1,200 of the poorest in the community and the committee has warned that delaying its introduction until 2018 will leave hundreds of people, of all ages, limited to incomes which are intolerable.
Policy & Resources has this week further warned that funding was unlikely to be available until 2019 at the earliest, but Employment & Social Security is vowing to fight to ensure this will not be delayed that long.
E&SS president Michelle Le Clerc, pictured, emphasised the committee was concerned and had even discussed whether it should try to implement some elements of the SWBIC reforms initially, but decided against the piecemeal approach.
