There are about 134,000 claimants of universal credit in NI - but a £20 a week top up has ended.
The £20 top-up - which Chancellor Rishi Sunak said was only a temporary measure to help people through the pandemic - was extended by six months in March, but MPs across the political spectrum, along with charities and campaigners, have called for it to continue beyond the autumn.
"They're taking this £20 away at the worst possible time, they should not be removing it at all, they should make it permanent," she told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.She said she hoped the government would reconsider its decision and that the NI Assembly "step up and help the people of Northern Ireland".
"In the middle of the pandemic we had fed 6,000 people, but to date it is 12,000 people - that gives you some indication about the scale," she said. According to the charity Save the Children, between now and early November, more than 83,000 children in over 44,000 households in Northern Ireland will be affected by having universal credit payments reduced by £87 per month or £1,040 a year.
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