§ Mr. Charles WardleTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what arrangements have been made for the allocation of money to charities in Northern Ireland in respect of the retail prices index understatement on social security benefits and centrally administered pensions.
§ Mr. NeedhamThe balance remaining out of the savings attributable to the RPI error in the social security uprating in Northern Ireland, after allowing for the compensatory payments to individual beneficiaries, is about £250,000. This will be made available to voluntary organisations, and particularly to those whose work would benefit the groups affected by the error.
To ensure as wide and as equitable a distribution as possible, I have decided that the money should be available to regional voluntary organisations and to local groups. The Department of Health and Social Services will administer part of the new fund, in the form of grants to individual regional bodies for specific purposes, and the Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust, which has a well-proven track record in this field, will distribute the balance in the form of grants to more localised community projects serving the same target groups.
The Department of Health and Social Services will now be inviting applications for a share of the available money, and the Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust will be announcing details of how local groups should apply.
The savings accruing to the superannuation schemes for Northern Ireland civil servants, teachers and health and personal social services staff amount to about £158,000. In the case of the Civil Service, payments totalling £52,500 were made by the Department of Finance and Personnel to the Civil Service retirement fellowship, the Civil Service benevolent fund and the Northern Ireland Civil Service sports association in the financial year 1987–88. In the case of retired teachers and health and personal social services staff consideration is being given to identifying the most appropriate arrangements for distributing the sums involved for the benefit of the groups of staff concerned.