Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2015-12-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether financial penalties related to welfare reform have been ceased since legislation on that subject was agreed by the Northern Ireland Assembly; and whether there has been reimbursement of such penalties since that agreement.

Mr Ben Wallace

In the Fresh Start Agreement, the Government committed to stop welfare deductions for 2015-16 following Assembly approval of a consent motion to enable primary and secondary legislation to the welfare system to proceed at Westminster.

The Government also committed to refund the proportion of deduction due for the remainder of 2015-16, making an equivalent sum available to the NI Executive spread equally over 2016-17 and 2017-18. This will now take place.