Stop the witch-hunt against the poor - Ní Chuilín

Sinn Féin Social Development Spokesperson and North Belfast MLA Carál Ní Chuilín has hit out at the Tory Welfare Reform proposals which attack the most vulnerable.
“The ongoing witch-hunt against benefit recipients must be faced down. The British Coalition government along with sensationalist media reports are painting all those on benefits as spongers, dossers and fraudsters,” said Ní Chuilín.

“If they were to take an honest and realistic approach to this issue then the facts could clearly be exposed and the myth of benefit fraud would be ended.
“If we take for example people who receive child benefit on income support, income support is reduced by the amount of child benefit received. This is not an additional payment making it extremely difficult for low-income families.
“Disability Living Allowance is the benefit with the lowest fraud levels with less than 0.01% being fraudulent claims yet constant myths of fraud are circulated by the right-wing media.

“The issue of carers is even more scandalous. Carers save the British government £3bn per year by only receiving £53.90 for a 35 hour minimum week. This works out at £1.30 an hour, one quarter of the minimum wage. If carers earn one penny over £95 outside of these payments their benefit is stopped.
“Little focus however is placed on the fact that last year clerical error or mistakes in payments cost £32 million, a saving that we should really be striving for instead of punishing the vulnerable.
“Alex Attwood has made much of his contacts with the British secretary for work and pensions, Ian Duncan Smith, whose proposed reforms can only lead to further hardship for those most in need.

“Despite the concerns being spoken off by the SDLP DSD minister he is preparing to migrate 76,000 claimants from incapacity to jobs seekers at a time when there is no jobs with a prolonged recession and job opportunities that are almost none existent.
“We already have one of the poorest welfare systems in Europe, a mechanism that is a safety net for those in society who really need it. What we need to see now is a clear and concise argument from the minister, which includes concrete proposals of how he intends to protect the vulnerable and fight these cuts.

“Sadly the Torys are at their old agenda of dismantling the welfare system by using the language of efficiency and hiding behind the economic downturn. Deprived communities like North Belfast will be hardest hit under these proposals,” said the Sinn Féin MLA.