SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has said "nobody, not one" voter has raised with him Brexit's Protocol or who will be First Minister during canvassing for the Stormont election.
Launching the party's Assembly manifesto, Mr Eastwood said the SDLP was focused "within every fibre of our being" on lifting people out of poverty.
He accused the DUP and Sinn Féin of "15 years of crisis and failure", claiming Stormont's leading parties are using rows about the Protocol, ministerial titles and border polls as a distraction.
Read more: Every candidate running for the Stormont Assembly
An emergency payment of at least £200 for every household to ease cost of living pressures and up to £1,200 by December for the hardest-hit families are among the SDLP's manifesto proposals.
The party also wants to set up a Children's Future Fund that gives every child a £1,000 investment in green technologies that they can withdraw when they turn 18.
Mr Eastwood said the SDLP has been "screaming about this cost of living emergency" long before the war in Ukraine escalated problems with rising food and fuel prices.
Speaking at the Junction in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, he said: "That's why we've got a plan to deal with it. It's such a good plan, other people are actually copying it."
The SDLP had proposed the £200 emergency payment prior to the election campaign. On Monday, Sinn Féin unveiled a manifesto that included a pledge to allocate £230 to every household.
Polls suggest a tight contest between the DUP and Sinn Féin to become the largest party and be entitled to holding the First Minister post in Stormont's power-sharing Executive.
The DUP has claimed Sinn Féin would use the top job to push for a "divisive" border poll. The party has also warned it will not re-enter the Executive until its concerns over Irish Sea trade barriers as a result of the Northern Ireland Protocol are resolved.
Mr Eastwood, whose party is running 22 candidates for next week's Assembly election, said they are "determined to lift people out of poverty".
The Foyle MP added: "The reality is though after 15 years of crisis and failure, walking in and walking out of government, the two parties that are at the very top have failed this community - and they don't want you to talk about it.
"They don't want you to talk about the issues that are in this manifesto. They want you to talk about the Protocol. Nobody's ever mentioned the Protocol to me in all the conversations I've had with voters over the past four or five weeks. Nobody, not one, has mentioned the Protocol.
"Nobody's mentioned who's going to be First Minister, who's going to be Deputy First Minister.
"Because they know, the offices in Stormont are all pretty warm. And the ministers in Stormont are all very comfortable.
"But they also know that they're going out and doing a shift every single day and coming home and having to keep their coats on because they're absolutely foundered in their own homes.
"That's a scandal in today's society, and no talk of what position somebody's going to get is going to fix that problem."
He added: "If you want real change - a lot of people are talking about 'real change' after having led the government for 15 years - but if you really want real change, there's only one choice in this election.
"And that's to vote for the fantastic candidates that the SDLP is putting forward."
Mr Eastwood proposed investing £1billion in the health system but said the SDLP was "determined to finally grasp the nettle of healthcare reform" and implement plans in the 2016 Bengoa report.
Taking questions from reporters, the SDLP leader also said voters have not asked about the party's formal partnership with Irish government party Fianna Fáil.
The two parties announced a cross-border alliance in 2019 but the status of the collaboration since then has been uncertain.
Last month it emerged Fianna Fáil is to consider a motion from its youth wing to end the partnership.
Mr Eastwood defended the collaboration, arguing that it played a role in the Irish government setting up the multi-million-euro Shared Island Unit to boost north-south cooperation.
He said: "That was work that was done as a result of conversations that [Fianna Fáil leader] Micheál Martin and I had together.
"That's the legacy of those conversations and we're very proud actually that over the next five years you're going to see real change on the ground, cross-border, in border communities, because of the work we did there."
Mr Eastwood also said reports from the New Ireland Commission, a civic forum the party founded last year to discuss future constitutional arrangements on the island of Ireland, would be released after the election.
Read more: Every candidate running for the Stormont Assembly
Read more: SDLP leader: All political leaders should feel ashamed over cost of living crisis
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