12 December 2002
BUDGET WILL BOOST HOUSING AND WELFARE REFORM
Des Browne MP, the Minister with responsibility for Social Development, today announced details of how the £559.4 million Budget allocation to the Department will be spent.
Most of the expenditure – around £506 million - will be used for Housing and delivery of Social Security and Child Support services. Further support of £51.9m will be targeted at improving the physical and social needs of deprived communities.
The Minister commented, "This substantial allocation to the Department for Social Development will be used to support many of the most vulnerable members of society and to tackle disadvantage and poverty wherever it exists. Together, the full range of programmes managed by my Department is designed to achieve the Department’s overall objective of tackling disadvantage and building communities throughout Northern Ireland.
"The money will be used to deliver a comprehensive range of benefits to people who need them and to continue to invest in a massive programme of reforming the way those benefits are delivered, making services more relevant and accessible. It also represents a continuing investment in the quality of social housing in Northern Ireland, with new money being allocated to deal with the problem of fuel poverty.
"Resources are being made available to allow the introduction of new arrangements to provide housing support services to vulnerable people living in the community. We will continue to support disadvantaged communities by providing financial assistance to projects and programmes that address physical and social need and help develop the capacity of local communities themselves to tackle the problems that they face.
"Overall, this money and the programmes it supports form a centrepiece of the Government’s policy on tackling social need and promoting social inclusion."
Details of how the DSD budget is to be allocated include:
- A total of £223.7m in 2003/04 for the Social Security and Child Support Agencies to continue to deliver a range of benefits in parity with GB and to deliver the Welfare Reform and Modernisation Programme. This represents a 9.8pc increase on 2002/03 funding and will permit the introduction of the Card Account at the Post Office (CAPO), as part of the replacement of paper-based systems of payment.
- Continued support to improve housing conditions through an allocation in 2003/04 of £283.8m, which together with revenue raised by the NIHE, will result in a total of £643m being made available. Work will include;
- The introduction of the new Supporting People arrangements from 1 April 2003 through the allocation of additional funding of £6.4m for Special Needs Management Allowance (SNMA), to assist people who require support to live in their own homes.
- Alleviation of fuel poverty in the private sector through an additional £4.3m per year.
- Replacement in 2003/04 of 3,500 heating systems, including an additional 2,000 inefficient Economy 7 heating systems in the homes of young families and elderly people, aided by £5.5m from the Strategic Investment Programme and a £2m Budget allocation.
- Provision of £5m in 2003/04 and £1m per year from 2004/05 to provide dedicated accommodation to meet the needs of the homeless.
- Support of £51.9m in 2003/04 for urban regeneration and community development, targeting the physical and social needs of neighbourhoods and addressing areas of weak community infrastructure to support the development of deprived communities.
The Budget allocations will provide the Department with total resources of £559.4m in 2003/04 (excluding EU Peace programmes), a rise of 2pc over those for 2002/03. Resources would subsequently rise to £587.3m in 2004/05 and £622.3m in 2005/06.
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