Social Security and Covid-19: An inadequate response to crisis…

By Ciara Fitzpatrick, Ulster University, School of Law Lockdown due to the Covid-19 global pandemic has had far reaching consequences for life as we know it. The economic repercussions will be huge – recent analysis by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has shown a 10 percent spike in unemployment, equating to around 2 million more people out of work in the UK. In the three weeks to 9 April, 45,000 new claims were made for Universal Credit (UC) in …

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Have we really reached full employment in Northern Ireland?

Ulster Bank economist Richard Ramsey has suggested that Northern Ireland is now “effectively at full employment” as the latest official figures showed the unemployment rate was 3.5% in the three months between December and February 2018. This is quite a drop from the over 20% we had in the 1980s. Northern Ireland has traditionally been associated with high unemployment so this is quite a turnaround. Now as always there are some caveats, the BBC reports: The inactivity rate in Northern Ireland stands …

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Economic deprivation, unemployment, and the sectarian divide

There has been much discussion in recent days, both in Stormont and here on Slugger, on Disability Living Allowance. Specifically, following the Minister for Social Development Mervyn Storey’s disclosure in the Assembly that West Belfast is the area with the highest levels of DLA claimants, there has been debate about whether DLA claimant levels are higher in predominantly Catholic areas. Instead of tiptoeing gently around the issue, I thought it would be interesting to see if there was indeed a …

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The Corporation Tax cut experiment – lessons learned from The Azores

The rocky outcrop of The Azores has been talked about more than is usual in Northern Ireland in recent months and years.  This isn’t due to its sudden explosion in popularity as a holiday destination for the good burghers of Ulster, but because of a 2006 ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Communities.  This decision concerned Portugal allowing its autonomous regions to reduce the rate of personal and corporate taxes by 30%, which the territory of The …

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After Haass: Risk of growing local disputes into toxic regional problems

I’ve got my iPhone beside me as I write. I’m writing on my laptop. But if I break off and have a spare moment later I can pick up this article on the iPhone and continue working. I use the little thing for calls, texting, taking photos, taking video, editing video, video conferencing, scanning articles, as an internet connection for my laptop, GPS navigation, and – of course – surfing the internet. I can use my fingerprint to unlock it, …

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SDLP is the only Assembly party to refuse the latest £5,000 pay rise

Interesting use of an FOI by a political party (never wrong for long, I’m told it was the Nolan Show wot found it out), ie to find out whether any of the other political parties at Stormont refused their 11% pay rise. Mark H Durkan: “The independent panel which recommended the payrise are completely out of touch not only with the public mood but also with public need. This was evidenced by their decision to cut MLA office costs at …

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Unemployment in Ireland: a tale of two countries…

As figures on the live register of unemployed in the Republic continue to even out at 14.5% (albeit at historically high levels,) the NI Labour market report released this morning shows a slight drop in unemployment rates 6.7%, down 0.5 percentage points over both the quarter and year… Hardly an indication of a recovery in the Republic and, just possibly, a calm before the cuts really start to bite in Northern Ireland? Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He …

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raising an old issue like employment

At the moment, as Pete flagged a couple of days ago, Bill Clinton is doing some heavy lifting in the US for job creation on behalf of the Republic of Ireland’s government. Over at the Belfast media group, Jude Collins provides an interesting contrast, highlighting the uneven results of Invest NI’s work: During  2010/2011, Invest NI  managed to secure NOT A SINGLE JOB in West Belfast. Yet  year after year, south and east Belfast attract shed loads more money via Invest …

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“I wouldn’t suggest that the executive’s programme for government is quite so meaningless…”

The once and future Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, and Sinn Féin’s candidate in the Irish Presidential race, Martin McGuinness, MP, MLA, is keen to promote his “strong  track record in seeking Foreign Direct Investment, leading important Trade Missions and attracting investment and jobs”.  But, as Mark Devenport highlights from the leaked draft programme for government, [as with so many things… – Ed] that’s only half the story. However, glancing at the draft obtained this week by my colleague Martina Purdy, you …

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“It will be 2012 at the earliest before we can say whether Northern Ireland’s unemployment rate and levels have peaked.”

As the BBC reports The number of people claiming unemployment benefit last month reached 59,000 – a rise of 100 on the previous month. That means unemployment has reached its highest rate in 13 years. And it’s worth noting from the Northern Ireland Labour Market Report April 2011 [pdf file], that that’s an increase of 3,300 over the year. Employment The number of persons in employment in the period December 2010 – February 2011 was estimated at 779,000. This estimate was up …

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Reducing unemployment

I took a quick look on RecruitIreland.com and couldn’t find a single job offering job share (where two or more workers share the same job). Which got me thinking – should the government be incentivising job share schemes? That is offering tax breaks, or other incentives, to employers who offer shared jobs. I am sure these type of arrangements would suit many workers currently in employment and some unemployed. It would mean that come any redundancies companies could lay-off less …

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