Social Development a vital component - McCausland

Services delivered by the Department for Social Development are a vital component in the lives of the most disadvantaged in our community.
~ Thursday, 16 June 2011

That was a key message from Nelson McCausland, Minister for Social Development, when he met his departments’ Assembly Committee to update them on his departmental priorities.

Minister McCausland said: “Most of the work of my Department is focused on our most disadvantaged citizens, families and communities. We provide support through social security, child maintenance, providing social housing, addressing homelessness and supporting our poorest communities through neighbourhood renewal.

“The Department for Social Development has a huge impact on peoples lives; delivering a budget of almost £6 billion per annum through 7900 staff. We have an impact on every residential area, community, village and town across Northern Ireland.

“And I am greatly impressed with the work of the Department and its staff. Housing targets have been exceeded; a substantial programme of improvements to our towns and cities delivered; through neighbourhood renewal the delivery of many hundreds of projects of direct support to our poorest communities; the Social Security Agency has recorded its best ever performance levels and record levels of money being collected for children by the Child Maintenance Enforcement Division.”

The Minister went on to advise that major problems remain to be tackled. He said: “We are in the midst of an economic downturn that affects everybody but impacts most on the least well off. Latest figures from the Institute of Fiscal Studies indicate that inflation increased the cost of goods and services to the poorest families by 4.3% a year between 2008 and 2010, compared to 2.7% experienced by the richest fifth of households during the same period. Unemployment continues to rise here, as does those seeking support from the Social Security Agency. And we have stubbornly high rates of people dependent on benefits compared to the rest of the UK. Tackling poverty then will be a significant challenge in this difficult economic climate. But, we need to look at the causes of unemployment and poverty and do more to get people back into work.”

Notes to editors:

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