Ulster Unionist MLA Michael Copeland has reiterated his Party's belief that the current welfare reform proposals being spearheaded by Nelson McCausland cannot be allowed to go ahead un-amended after it was revealed that Northern Ireland would be the region of the UK to suffer the greatest financial loss under the proposed changes.
The East Belfast MLA said;
"The current Welfare Reform Bill is one of the single biggest and most important pieces of legislation facing Northern Ireland in this Assembly term. Very few households, both working and not working, will come away unscathed by the current proposals.
The Ulster Unionist Party believes that the current welfare budget is unsustainable and that the current welfare system is in urgent need of reform - it is too unwieldy at present and we must ensure that people are always better off in work than on benefits. The working poor are all too often forgotten in the welfare debate. Welfare must be properly targeted to ensure those in genuine need receive their entitlements but the current proposals are neither targeted, nor will they work.
Research carried out by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research has found that the current proposed reforms would take £750m annually out of the economy here - equivalent to £650 for each and every working age adult in Northern Ireland.
It will not only be the unemployed who will see significant cuts, but also huge numbers of working families, the sick and the disabled. For instance more than 240,000 households here will lose on average £330 per year as a result of changes to child benefit support.
From the very outset of these proposed changes my Party has consistently stressed that the group facing the most unfair changes was the low paid working households with young children. Instead of protecting these families, the current Welfare Reform Bill is penalising them.
With such reductions in support it is inevitable that consumer spending in the local economy is going to be significantly impacted. Much of the spend on social security already stays exclusively within the local economy; it is spent on groceries, on utilities such as heating and on clothes. An annual cut of £750m in this spend will therefore have a devastating impact on our high street.
Reforms to our welfare system are needed but it will be totally pointless if they simply end up making more people unemployed by their implementation.
Whilst decisions taken on welfare in Great Britain were always going to have a bearing on Northern Ireland, we repeatedly warned the Social Development Minister that it was up to him to use the powers given to him under devolution to ensure that appropriate changes were made to reflect our own particular circumstances.
It is therefore deeply regrettable that Social Development Minister has not only failed to bring forward a final amended Bill, but has failed to bring forward any Bill at all. Indeed this time last year that the issue came before the Assembly Chamber and the best the DUP could do then was to warn that we had a matter of months before we absolutely had to implement the reforms.
Unfortunately throughout the intervening period, instead of using the time to bring forward tangible changes to the draft Bill, all Nelson McCausland has been able to do is continue with his usual scaremongering. The people of Northern Ireland deserve better."