JUST two per cent of Covid-19 self-isolation grants were for £500 or more - despite the Department for Communities insisting its scheme is "better than £500" provided in the rest of the UK.
SDLP social justice spokesman Mark H Durkan said the previous assurances by former minister Carál Ní Chuilín have proven "hollow" after an assembly question revealed the level of payments.
"MLAs' offices have been inundated with people struggling to get support from this fund, even those under the prohibitively low £20,405 household income threshold," he said.
"These figures reveal that even those who do get support are unlikely to get £500."
The Foyle assembly member insisted it is now "clear that struggling families across the north are not receiving the same levels of financial support" as those in England, Scotland and Wales.
He warned what he branded "an inaccessible scheme with inadequate levels of support undermines the public health efforts", with people forced to choose "between an income and putting their own health and that of their families and communities at risk".
A DfC spokeswoman said it's grant scheme "is tailored to individual and family circumstances" with "no limit to the amount that can be awarded... (and) more than one grant can be paid if people need to self-isolate again" and "no limit to the number of grants that can be claimed".
She said: "Of those who applied for assistance here around 75 per cent have been found eligible for a self-isolation grant, with almost 16,000 such grants having been made so far totalling £2.2m."
Meanwhile, Minister Deirdre Hargey has announced that 29 heritage projects are to benefit from £241,900 in Covid support funding.
Grants range from £3,000 to £10,000 with funding for projects including video storytelling sessions to people with dementia, providing genealogy workshops and developing heritage trails delivered by the end of March.