A STORMONT department has been challenged over suggestions it cannot extend welfare mitigations which curbed the 'bedroom tax'.
Mitigations introduced in Northern Ireland to soften the impact of British government benefit cuts are due to expire in March 2020.
The measures included funding to offset the controversial 'bedroom tax' policy, which reduces housing benefits for claimants deemed to have more bedrooms than they need.
Tracy Meharg, permanent secretary in the Department for Communities (DfC), told a Westminster committee she has no power to extend Northern Ireland's welfare reform mitigations.
The senior civil servant said "any rollover will require legislation", which would have to be passed by either Stormont or the House of Commons.
Northern Ireland has not had a functioning devolved government since the DUP and Sinn Féin-led executive fell apart in 2017 in the wake of the RHI scandal.
However, MLAs have challenged DfC's stance.
Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey highlighted how the department's own review of welfare mitigation schemes in March said it would "in principle be able to make the necessary amendments to existing legislation" to facilitate using Discretionary Housing Payments to tackle the 'bedroom tax'.
In the report, DfC said the use of Discretionary Housing Payments for this purpose would present "significant administrative and financial challenges" but may be possible "even in the absence of the assembly if agreement on all other issues including budget had been reached".
Mr Maskey, an MLA for West Belfast, said "of course it would be better if the institutions were back in place" but "in the interim, we do not accept that the department is powerless to act".
SDLP deputy leader Nichola Mallon said a "cliff edge of debt, despair and homelessness is looming in nine months when mitigations run out".
Citing the Discretionary Housing Payments mechanism, the North Belfast assembly member said DfC must be "prepared for all eventualities".
"It is essential that the Department for Communities prepares an alternative mechanism to secure mitigations as a method of last resort if it is not possible for an executive and assembly to legislate," she said.
DfC said any decision to extend the existing legislation providing for welfare mitigations would require ministerial approval and a "confirmatory vote to amend the existing legislation".
A spokeswoman said the Discretionary Housing Payments option "would not be a rollover of the existing mitigations" but "in principle" legislative amendments by civil servants may be possible without an assembly vote.
"The department made it clear in its evidence that Discretionary Housing Payment provision would not be an extension of the existing welfare mitigation scheme since it requires an application and since it is a discretionary scheme, and therefore payment cannot be guaranteed," she added.