Results 1–20 of 22 for bedroom tax segment:23319949

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Mark Durkan: ...welcome the commitment from the Minister. However, will the Member accept that people have had commitments made and heard them before? He referred to commitments from his party colleagues on the bedroom tax and, indeed, to the commitment from the deputy First Minister on bedroom tax. Does the Member agree that this is not the first commitment that the deputy First Minister has given on...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Alex Attwood: ...and his DUP colleagues were saying, "Get the Bill into the Chamber and through the legislative process". Not once did Mr Wilson say that there was any need, any reason or any money to mitigate the bedroom tax. Not once. Now he makes a virtue tonight, to quote the former Minister, of mitigating what was going to have that impact in his reference to the bedroom tax. Not once, Mr Wilson,...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Sammy Wilson: ...day motions to that effect at Westminster. Indeed, if the Member remembers rightly, I was Finance Minister when the £17 million was made available for the Executive for the mitigation of the bedroom tax, as he calls it. He is wrong on all of those counts, but we still have total silence from him on why he introduced this tax on the private rented sector tenants of Northern Ireland. He...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Mickey Brady: ...argue that clause 52, which I think the Minister introduced, is a good clause, in the sense that it extends the period in which a person can get contributory ESA. There has been much talk about the bedroom tax. It does not work; that has been proved in Scotland, where housing associations built loads of houses with three bedrooms. People would not move into them because of the bedroom...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Mickey Brady: No, the Member will not give way. The bedroom tax has been neutralised and will continue to be neutralised, so that is a good thing for those vulnerable people whom we have all been talking about today. I will move on to the discretionary payments in clauses 51 and 52. Basically, the social fund has been abolished in Britain and has gone to local authorities, some of which service it in a...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Dolores Kelly: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. We have, today, again honoured our commitment that we gave over two years ago to the people to stand against the bedroom tax, and we are pleased that the Green Party has stood with us. It is also a matter of regret that the Alliance Party, which has proved to be worthy poodles of the DUP/Sinn Féin diktat, have not submitted any amendments or spoken in relation...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Alex Maskey: I thank the Member for giving way. I know that she has a lot to cover. The Member referred to the bedroom tax and seemed to suggest that she heard that it was dealt with in the Stormont House Agreement, but she does not see anything in front of us. Does the Member, who is the deputy leader of her own party, not accept that her party signed on to the Stormont House Agreement and, in...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Dolores Kelly: ...agreement that deal with the Welfare Reform Bill. I do accept, and I did say, that there have been mitigating factors already agreed and flexibilities put into the Budget that will mitigate the bedroom tax. It is not abolished, and that is what we want to see from our party's perspective. We acknowledge that the agreement, as I understand it, is only for five years. We want to see it...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Stewart Dickson: The amendments before us in regard to entitlements relate to some of the most contentious parts of the Welfare Reform Bill, notably the so-called bedroom tax. This is perhaps the most well known and, indeed, galvanising element of this Bill. The removal of the spare room subsidy is one of the most cynical reforms made by the Conservative-led Government. The policy, cited as a means of...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Stewart Dickson: ...the under-occupation of social housing, has resulted in the demonisation of those in receipt of housing benefits, 500,000 of whom across the UK are actually in work. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the tax has been a failure in England, with only 6% of those affected moving to a smaller home. In the meantime, a huge amount of undue distress, debt and punitive measures have been levied on the...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Stewart Dickson: ...and irrational. Therefore, I support the amendments brought forward by the Department with regard to the mitigation policy. Ultimately, the decision on the continuation or the abolition of the bedroom tax will be made at Westminster. That is where those decisions will be made, and I hope that a future Government will reverse that. The Alliance Party and our MP, Naomi Long, fought that...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Alex Maskey: ...of the Bill and has often been in the media ever since. The terms "size criteria" and "underoccupancy" particularly raised serious concerns, and the issue has become better known as the bedroom tax. In a nutshell, when a property is deemed to have one extra bedroom, housing benefit will be reduced by 14%, and when there are two extra bedrooms, it will be reduced by 25%. The Committee...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Dolores Kelly: .... Again, we will be keen to hear what the Minister has to say and what assurances we can get on this aspect of the Bill. I turn my attention to our opposition to clause 69, which is known as the bedroom tax or underoccupancy rule. Mr Deputy Speaker, you will know that we have signalled our opposition and, indeed, signed a petition, as has Steven Agnew — the SDLP petition of concern....

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Dolores Kelly: ...on this island and between our two communities, particularly here in Northern Ireland, that people cannot live where they wish because of the fear of intimidation and threat. So, the bedroom tax has a particular resonance for the public in Northern Ireland. As Mr Wilson and others will know, many people are very concerned about that. People who own their home talk about downsizing when...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Roy Beggs: ...our Health Department, which is already struggling. I will have that at the back of my mind when deciding on some of his ideas, and I will not be able to support them. Sammy Wilson highlighted the bedroom tax that was introduced several years ago, along with private sector involvement in assessment. He defended the DUP abuse of the petition of concern. He failed to acknowledge that, in...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Roy Beggs: ..., on 10 April 2013, a wide range of amendments was tabled by my colleagues Robin Swann and Michael Copeland, covering split payments, frequency of payments, the relevance of medical evidence and bedroom tax, all of which have turned out to be the key issues. I have to give them credit for having the foresight to identify those issues two years ago. As an Assembly, if we look at how those...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Roy Beggs: ...to alter the Bill over two years ago. He did not acknowledge that the Ulster Unionist Party tabled several amendments over two years ago on issues such as joint claims, frequency of payments, bedroom tax and medical investigations. I refer him to the Assembly website and the section on primary legislation and current Bills, where he will see the clear evidence that that occurred.

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

John McCallister: ...how the Executive should work, because that does not provide for good or stable government. We have an Executive without a Programme for Government or any meaningful policy ideas beyond corporation tax. They have no sense of direction, and that is deeply regrettable. So many amendments in this group have petitions of concern. Just when I thought that the Assembly or the Executive could...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Sammy Wilson: ..., has already revealed where some of it is going anyway. Some of it will be spent on avoiding, until we get our housing balance and our housing stock right, the impact of the spare-room subsidy or bedroom tax. (Mr Speaker in the Chair) Some of it will be spent on the very thing that Members have raised here today: what happens when people go for their assessments as to whether they can...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Welfare Reform Bill: Consideration Stage (10 Feb 2015)

Alex Maskey: ...way. Does he recall that, when he held bilaterals with my party during the Social Development Committee's deliberations on the Bill, he was prepared to sign the petition of concern against the bedroom tax but was not prepared to agree to any other mitigating measure? In fact, since that time, which is two years ago, you have not brought forward a single amendment. It seems to be a bit...


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