'Workaround' sought to ensure Northern Ireland households receive £400 energy payment

A "workaround" is being sought to ensure that people in Northern Ireland do not miss out on a £400 payment to help with energy costs in the autumn because of the lack of an executive, according to the communities minister.

Deirdre Hargey of Sinn Féin is due to discuss the issue with Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi on Wednesday to address how the scheme can be extended to Northern Ireland.

She said that the quickest way to deliver the money for families facing a bleak winter would be for political power-sharing to be restored.

The DUP has refused to re-enter the executive or appoint a speaker until its concerns over the Northern Ireland Protocol have been resolved.

The protocol is a trade deal which was part of the Brexit agreement between the UK and EU.

In July, the British Government revealed details of the payment scheme in which households in Great Britain will get more than £60 off their energy bills each month throughout winter as part of its cost-of-living support measures.

The money, which is part of a package announced in May this year, will come in six instalments over six months to some 29 million households.

Households will see £66 taken off their energy bills in October and November, and £67 between December and March, the Government said.

However, there has been uncertainty on how Northern Ireland households will receive the payment to help with energy costs.

Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey said she will meet the chancellor on Wednesday afternoon to relay that there is a "need to find a way to get that money".

She added that her Sinn Féin colleague, Finance Minister Conor Murphy, has been discussing the issue with the Treasury to find a solution.

"The quickest solution here is to have a functioning government," said Ms Hargey.

"We know the Economy Department can run out a scheme quickly, they have all of the details and mechanisms to do that.

"In the absence, we are having to find workarounds and those workarounds take some time to try and work through. What happens in the middle is that people are struggling in the here and now."

Ms Hargey added: "These payments should have hit people's bank accounts the way the other fuel support payments have begun to and we need to do all that we can, working with the Treasury, working with the British Government, to do that in the absence of others who are unwilling to form a government.

"This one-off payment of £400 is not going to be enough. It will assist, but this winter is going to be bleak for many families and low income workers and that is why we need a functioning Executive. This has taken time to try and get a workaround and people are struggling here and now.

"If we had a functioning Executive we could give certainty to those families and we could get the money out into their pockets as soon as possible, rather than trying to find workarounds which don't give any certainty, which create instability and worries."

The communities minister said pressures were already beginning to build on families affected by soaring costs.

"People are really struggling and that struggle is going to continue to build and build over the winter months," said Ms Hargey.

"People want leadership, they want their elected representatives to work on their behalf, so we need a functioning Executive.

"We are looking at supports we can roll out but we need an Executive to release the budget. We are all working under budgetary pressures.

"There is this myth out there that government is continuing to function and all these budgets are rolling over. That is not the case - we are going to hit crisis point and we are going to hit it at the worst time coming into the winter months."

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