Welfare Reform in Northern Ireland

This conference recognises the disaster that welfare reform has been for the poorest in our communities in Northern Ireland. Low paid workers have been hit particularly hard by Universal Credit and, for them, there have been no mitigations payments available. Disabled workers have been hit by the double whammy of Work Capability Assessments and PIP assessments, carried out by for-profit companies ATOS and CAPITA.

Conference mandates Congress to lead a campaign against these welfare “reforms”. In particular, the trade union movement should take a lead on demanding that Northern Ireland:

• follow Scotland in banning private companies such as ATOS and CAPITA from carrying out medical assessments and in scrapping the Bedroom Tax;

• maintain the mitigations that have paid the Bedroom Tax and protected larger families who are subject to a benefit cap and extend these mitigations to cover low paid workers whose incomes have been slashed under Universal Credit.