Derry MLA calls for action rather than words on energy payments

Sinn Féin MLA Ciara Ferguson has said the British Government must act to get the much-promised £400 energy support and £200 heating oil payments out to workers and families. 

Foyle  MLA said: "The British government must confirm when the £400 energy support payment and the now £200 oil payment will be paid.

"Now is the time for action rather than promises.

“The first payments of this money would have been out the door and into people’s pockets only for the DUP’s decision to collapse the Executive in February and its subsequent refusal to recognise the result of the recent election.

"It is now over six months since the first of this support was announced and despite DUP claims the payments would be made in November, there is still no sign of it.  

"People are struggling right now with their energy bills and they deserve to know when they will receive the payments that they have been promised.

"It is unfair that people here are being punished for the political failures of the DUP, the British government must urgently provide clarity to give families certainty as winter deepens."