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Troubles pension: Stormont to pledge £2.5m for preparatory work

BBC Victims of the Troubles in wheelchairsBBC
Payments to people physically injured or traumatised had been due to commence on 29 May

Stormont sources have told the BBC that £2.5m will be pledged next week towards preparatory work for a new pension scheme for victims of the Troubles.

The victims' payments were approved by Westminster but they have been delayed.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill resisted designating a department to administer the scheme as her party objected to the eligibility rules.

Sinn Féin regarded the rules governing who could apply for the the pension as discriminatory against ex-prisoners.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) then held up final approval for a series of financial decisions at Stormont until the preparatory resourcing for the pension scheme was provided.

Those delayed decisions including the allocation of money to enable payments to continue to be made over the summer to children who get free school meals.

Next week, Finance Minister Conor Murphy will confirm that the £12m free school meal programme will go ahead, and at the same time the preparatory steps for the pension scheme will also be approved.

The pension scheme, which would provide regular payments to people who were seriously injured during the Troubles, has been estimated to cost at least £100m in its first three years.

But it has been long delayed by arguments over the definition of a Troubles victim and whether ex-prisoners, including former paramilitaries, should be entitled to apply for payments.

The Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG), which has links to the loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Force (UDA) has criticised Sinn Féin's stance on the eligibility rules.

"From a loyalist perspective we do not envisage many (or for that matter any) applications from those who were adjudged (in law) to have committed crimes that would exclude them from applying," the South Belfast UPRG said in a statement.

"We are very clear about this. Anyone who planted a bomb, shot and attacked security services or members of the public and who (in that process of committing those acts) were injured cannot claim to be a victim," their statement added.