ONE in three people in Fermanagh will be hit by the welfare cuts as thousands of families brace for sweeping cuts to their benefits.
According to the Citizens Advice the benefits axe – which is expected to fall whatever the outcome of the political wrangling at Stormont – will see over 15,300 local people lose out because of the imminent changes to the welfare system.
The Fermanagh Herald can reveal how these changes, which were debated during yesterday’s Assembly debate, will hit local people’s pockets, including those receiving child tax credits, housing benefit and working tax credit.
The worrying figures have been laid bare by Siobhan Peoples, manager at the local Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) who has also issued a stark warning as politicians discussed the final stage of the Welfare Reform Bill.
“The whole things is an awful shambles,” she said.
“We are inundated from morning to night, Monday to Friday, from people with either lost or reduced funding, or work loads increased.
“It has been hitting the vulnerable for quite some time and the people of Fermanagh are coming to our door everyday with benefit issues, employment issues, housing problems, tribunals, debt and all those things welfare reform will effect.
“Sometimes people ring us when they have been offered a job asking if they would be better off with the job or on benefits. That’s how lowly paid our local people are, that they are worse off working.”
When the reforms are introduced, some existing welfare benefits will be phased out and replaced by a new benefits system.
Means-tested benefits, such as income-based Jobseeker’s allowance, working tax credit and housing benefit, will eventually be replaced by one benefit called Universal Credit.
Anyone of working age and currently on certain benefits will eventually have to move to the new system and may have to agree to more conditions to get benefit.
The changes to housing benefit will see a benefit cap which sets a limit on the total amount of benefits someone can get, meaning people will lose some of their housing benefit.
Around 2,720 households in Fermanagh will be affected by changes to housing benefit.
Over 2,000 people in Fermanagh will be affected by changes to Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
Working people will have to prove that they are looking for work with better pay or more hours to continue getting Universal Credit.
Up to 5,500 households in receipt of tax credits and 1,800 people receiving work replacement benefits will be affected by Universal Credit, while 1,800 individuals receiving Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and almost 1,500 people receiving JSA will be affected by introduction of Universal Credit
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