Stormont Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey has announced plans for the extension of the welfare mitigation scheme.
Benefits claimants in Northern Ireland were described as facing a “cliff edge” as the previous set of mitigations, including a subsidy to the bedroom tax to ease the impact of welfare reform, were due to run out in March.
An estimated 38,000 households are in receipt of supplementary payments which protect them from the bedroom tax.
Ms Hargey said she will be introducing new legislation in the coming weeks.
She added: “We have a responsibility to protect the poorest and most vulnerable in society.
“I am pleased to announce that today the Executive agreed to my recommendation, in line with New Decade, New Approach, for the urgent extension of the bedroom tax mitigation beyond March 2020.
“In the coming weeks I will introduce new legislation to extend this essential mitigation, which will continue to safeguard more than 38,000 of the most vulnerable households in our society from harsh Tory welfare cuts.”
The Department for Communities previously said the mitigation scheme could not be extended without an Assembly.
The measures, to allow claimants to have their benefits topped up from a separate fund, had been passed shortly before the collapse of Stormont in January 2017.
The extension of the mitigations had been agreed in the New Decade, New Approach deal.
Ms Hargey said she will be looking at other mitigations committed to in the deal and liaising with stakeholders.
