SDLP Opposition Communities Spokesperson Mark H Durkan MLA has criticised the Communities Minister for focusing on "demonising" welfare recipients rather than addressing urgent social needs.

The Foyle MLA's comments follow an announcement by Minister Gordon Lyons regarding a new advertising campaign and additional measures intended to combat welfare fraud. Mr Durkan argued that the focus on fraud is a distraction from systemic failures, including housing stress and the lack of support for vulnerable individuals.

He noted that while wrongdoing should be investigated, the relatively small number of successful prosecutions suggests the majority of claimants are genuine. Mark H Durkan stated: "Of course wrongdoing should be investigated and dealt with, but the small number of prosecutions makes clear that the vast majority of benefit claimants are genuine people who rely on this support. While there will always be people out there who abuse the system, they are far outnumbered by those who the system abuses.

"If anything, there are many people across the North who are not receiving the welfare support they are entitled to. Many more have found themselves in thousands of pounds of debt, accrued over years, due to overpayments that have been made in error. Instead of addressing that problem, the Minister is pouring scarce resources into advertising campaigns and punching down by turning welfare claimants into scapegoats."

The SDLP spokesperson further suggested that public resources would be better spent tackling poverty and improving departmental accuracy rather than on high-profile enforcement drives.

He concluded: "I think the public would rather see the Minister and the Executive focus on their failures to tackle housing stress, poverty and the lack of support for vulnerable people, instead of engaging in distraction politics that does nothing to improve lives."