Council calls on Minister to save benefit office

LONDONDERRY’s local authority has backed a call on Benefits Minister Nelson McCausland to keep a local community benefit office in the city open two months after the Sentinel first revealed it was under threat of closure.
By Kevin Mullan
Published 27th Mar 2013, 15:52 BST

At a meeting of Derry City Council on Tuesday (March 26) SDLP councillor Angela Dobbins moved that the authority call on Mr McCausland to reverse the Social Security Agency (SSA) decision to close the Northside Community Benefits Office.

The looming threat to the office was first reported in the Sentinel on January 23, when the paper revealed the SSA was in the process of reviewing the unit in order to deliver a modernised welfare system to all claimants.

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Now Ms Dobbins has expressed the widespread concern felt by Shantallow residents that, with the Slievemore Nursing Unit and the Woodlands Speech and Language Unit also under threat of imminent closure, the area is being “systematically stripped” of social amenities.

A motion that Council call on the Benefits Minister to reverse the decision gained cross-party support from both the DUP and Sinn Féin.

An amendment by Sinn Féin councillor Elisha McCallion that the Northside office be reconfigured as a ‘fit for purpose’ fully modernised facility was also supported by all parties.

Related topics:Council