The SDLP has added its voice to a chorus of concern around the welfare top-up measures in the latest Stormont deal.
The DUP and Sinn Féin have been accused of "conning" people by repackaging an existing hardship fund for benefits claimants as new welfare mitigation money.
A statement issued last night by the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister refuted the claim and accused The Irish News of "misrepresenting the situation", but appeared to confirm the Social Security Agency’s 'discretionary fund' is being cut by more than 80 per cent this year.
Last week's Stormont deal has provision for a top-up fund of £90m-a-year to help those most affected by the Tory government's welfare reforms.
But Green Party leader Steven Agnew has claimed the discretionary fund – which has had a budget of more than £80m over each of the past three years – is being incorporated into the measures outlined in 'A Fresh Start'.
The move, which the North Down MLA described as "sleight of hand", would mean only a fraction of the welfare mitigation fund is new money.
Both the DUP and Sinn Féin, who last week voted in the assembly to hand Westminster the power to impose benefit cuts, have declined to respond to Mr Agnew's accusation.
The Green leader said last night that he was still waiting for answers to questions he raised.
"The silence from the DUP and Sinn Féin is deafening – increasingly it looks like the people of Northern Ireland are being conned," he said.
"They need to be clear – is there new money to mitigate against welfare cuts or not and has the discretionary fund simply been renamed?"
SDLP MP Margaret Ritchie also voiced concern about how the newly-announced welfare mitigation measures were being paid for.
She told The Irish News that the figures did not add up "politically or arithmetically".
"The re-profiling of discretionary support funding from the old social fund and the characterisation of this as new money secured from the British government is at best disingenuous and at worst downright deceitful," the South Down representative said.
"As the days go by we see just how shaky the latest Sinn Féin-DUP proposals are and after the Chancellor's autumn statement, we’ll see how much more pain is visited upon struggling households in the north."
Last week's deal came after 10 weeks of negotiations involving Stormont's five biggest parties along with the Irish and British governments.
In addition to agreeing to implement welfare reform, the agreement included measures to reform the devolved institutions and cut the regional corporation tax rate to 12.5 per cent in 2018.
The Dublin government also pledged infrastructure funds for the north, including £75m for the upgrade of the A5.
The latest deal largely mirrored the Stormont House Agreement which was struck in the run-up to last Christmas.
Sinn Féin withdrew its support for the deal in March, accusing the DUP of bad faith in drafting welfare mitigation measures.
