Decrease in poverty levels welcomed

Minister McCausland said: “I welcome the results from the Northern Ireland Poverty Bulletin showing overall reductions in both relative and absolute poverty. Given the poor economic conditions over recent years, this improvement is a good sign for the future.

“I particularly welcome the reduction in levels of relative child poverty over the year from 27% to 21%, the lowest level over the past 10 years. At the other end of the age spectrum, levels of pensioner relative poverty also fell to 22%. This is against the trend which saw pensioner poverty increasing from 2002 to 2008.

“I will soon introduce the Welfare Reform Bill to the Assembly to start the legislative process for the proposals emanating from the coalition government. Getting people into work is a key factor in helping people get out of poverty, and the introduction of Universal Credit will play an important part in this.

“It is important that people are paid the benefits they are entitled to and we have had a number of initiatives to encourage benefit uptake. These have generated almost £40 million in benefits since 2005, which has made a real difference to the lives of some 12,000 of the most vulnerable in our society. Further initiatives are currently under consideration.

“In addition, my Department has an important role working in disadvantaged communities through our neighbourhood renewal programme, which delivers real improvements to the lives of thousands of people right across Northern Ireland.”

The first Northern Ireland Poverty Bulletin covers the period 2010 to 2011 and is available here.