‘Advice NI were contacted by a client who was a single parent and seeking advice on whether they had continued entitlement to Working Tax Credit working 16hrs per week, or if they needed to claim Universal Credit.
Implementing quality processes to ensure your organisation can met the Northern Ireland Advice Quality Standard (NIAQS) can be overwhelming as well as time consuming.
It has been another extremely busy year for Advice NI’s Quality team. In the current Covid climate, the Quality team has had to quickly adapt and develop an effective approach to a number of aspects of quality.
Triage is often the first point of contact into an organisation. It aims to improve access to services by effectively managing demand whilst also meeting clients’ needs and expectations.
Advice NI conference heard from Neil Couling who was appointed Director General for the Universal Credit programme in GB in 2014, amid fears about the impact of the new benefit on low income households in Northern Ireland.
This “Understanding, Avoiding & Challenging Sanctions” Guide is designed to assist frontline generalist advisers in their work in supporting benefit claimants who are at risk of being sanctioned or who have been sanctioned.
Backing the “Keep Me Posted” campaign, Kevin Higgins, Head of Policy at Advice NI joined Judith Donovan CBE from Keep Me Posted to discuss the crucial need for continued paper-based correspondence for Universal Credit claimants.
The Advice NI Welfare Reform and Support Project (WRSP) continues to deliver Specialist and Targeted advice to help ensure that there an extra layer of assistance to clients who may be deemed more vulnerable due to their circumstances or disabilities.
