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Ritchie: NI and its people must be given incentive to get back into work

SDLP Leader and South Down MP Margaret Ritchie MLA has said that Northern Ireland lacks the normal economic incentives that make it worthwhile helping people off-benefit and into work.

Thu 2nd September

Speaking at the launch of the Centre for Social Justice’s launch of its Breakthrough Northern Ireland report alongside Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Patterson she said:

 

“I agree with the central argument from the Centre for Social Justice that we need to help as many people as possible make the journey from the dependency of a life on benefits, to the dignity and self-sufficiency of a life in gainful employment. And I agree also that it must then actually pay people to work.

 

“I also welcome the Centre’s emphasis on trying to rebuild communities through a greater level of support for the family. However I do not intend to hide the fact that we have two fundamental concerns.

 

“The first is that this policy must recognise the different circumstances of Northern Ireland. There is lack of employment opportunities here for benefit recipients to migrate to and there is also a general scarcity of affordable childcare provision. Moreover, due to the conflict here we have a genuinely higher level of physical disability.

 

“Our second concern is that some of the fine ideas which will require additional rather than fewer resources will end up mangled as they pass through the Treasury. Helping people from welfare into work can, over time, transform our society, but it will fail abysmally if it is really only focused on saving money. Indeed such an approach would cause disproportionate pain in this part of the world. So we will be watching the Chancellor and the Treasury very closely.

 

“Finally, Northern Ireland currently lacks the normal economic incentives that make it worthwhile helping people off-benefit and into work. At the moment if someone goes off-benefit in Northern Ireland, it is London that benefits from the saving. Similarly if someone previously on benefit starts working, the additional tax revenue goes into the coffers in London.

 

“There is no quick-fix solution for this, but the SDLP intends to engage with the UK Government and the Secretary of State on this and a range of other important economic issues facing the North. Notwithstanding our immediate budgetary challenges, we need to be thinking long-term about the big economic levers, including tax-varying powers, which are not yet devolved.

 

“When we commence this dialogue, in these difficult budgetary times, I think the Secretary of State and his colleagues will be pleasantly surprised with the originality and scope of SDLP ideas on the Economic Development and on building a Shared Society. The SDLP looks forward to further engagement with you on how we can improve the lives of those we seek to serve in Northern Ireland.”         

Margaret Ritchie

Margaret Ritchie MP, Westminster

Email m.ritchie@sdlp.ie
Tel 028 4461 2882

Press Office

Tel 028 90 52 1837

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