Revd Dr David Clements, the Chair of Social Responsibility for the Irish Methodists, was speaking after the devolved government was unable to vote through welfare spending cuts it had previously agreed to, making it unable to balance its budget and putting it on the verge of collapse.
Sinn Fein, the SDLP and the Green party jointly put forward a petition of concern about the concerns - a form of veto.
Some have argued the welfare cuts are hurting the most vulnerable in society unfairly and the hardest.
Mr Clements also said certain politicians could be making things worse for poorer people than they would have been if the cuts were voted through, because it opens up the possibility of Westminster taking direct control of the funding instead.
He also said it was an example of devolution working badly.
"The Assembly did actually vote for the budget measures but because of a thing called a petition of concern, it's gotta be approved by both Unionists and Nationalists, and the Nationalists called this petition of concern and so it hasn't gone through, and we're in crisis," Rev Dr Clements told Premier's News Hour.
"The ball's probably thrown into the Secretary of State's court and it may be that Westminster will take over responsibility for the welfare issues, which isn't satisfactory.
"But one thing it'll probably mean that vulnerable people are worse off under that scenario than they would've been if the bill had been passed.
"The difficulty is that the Northern Ireland government have to live within the reality of the budget allocation that they get. Things are a bit of a mess at the moment."
"From what I gather, there were reasonably good protections given so that whilst there has to be cuts... the most vulnerable were to be substantially protected."
Listen to Premier's Hannah Tooley speaking to Rev Dr David Clements:
