News Articles

Advice NI Calls for urgent action to combat digital exclusion and protect vulnerable communities.

Advice NI is seeking to recruit volunteers from rural communities to deliver on a LINK funded project. As part of LINK's access to cash activities, LINK wishes to support and encourage digital inclusion in the UK, including through initiatives with selected groups and individuals.

Advice NI have partnered with SENAC to deliver a tailored Digital Skills programme for parents of children with additional needs.

Northern Ireland has the highest rate of non-internet users on these islands at 14.7% (Office of National Statistics, 2021. Digital 2021: Ireland).

Advice NI, in partnership with the Special Educational Needs Advice Centre (SENAC), plan to support carers of children with learning difficulties to become more digitally included enabling them to engage with policy and decision makers and to access their rights and entitlements. Funded by the Department of Health, this project will support carers to learn the digital skills to go online safely and to access their rights and entitlements. We will be sharing more updates on this project in our next edition of Advice Matters.

Speaking about Advice NI’s response to Government's new employment strategy for disabled people, Chief Executive Bob Stronge said:

It has been estimated that approximately 200,000 local workers in NI are on the Government's job retention (furlough) scheme, which covers 80% of wages up to £2,500 a month. 

Advice NI welcome the growing calls for Government to act to extend the suspension of the 'Minimum Income Floor' for self employed Universal Credit claimants.

Despite the Government announcement on Friday about a different Job Support Scheme to follow the current furlough scheme, we in Advice NI remain concerned that thousands of employees across Northern Ireland could see their jobs under threat and so face the daunting prospect of claiming UC.

Over ½ million issues dealt with in last year by the Independent Advice Network. Social Security issues continue to dominate workload as a spike in employment and redundancy related enquiries set to grow Advice NI produces new guidance paper on redundancy.

An adviser contacted Specialist Support for Employment (SSE) with a query regarding a client who was made redundant while pregnant.

Sands Northern Ireland Network (SandsNI) is the regional branch of SandsUK. Sands was founded in 1978 by a small group of bereaved parents devastated by the death of their babies and in particular what they felt was a complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the significance and impact of their loss. Sands has around 100 support groups across the UK with 10 of these in Northern Ireland. All the support groups are run by trained Sands Befrienders who are bereaved parents themselves and have been supported through their grief by Sands and are now giving that support back to other parents.

Steven Guy, SandsNI Network Co-ordinator says

SandsNI provides support to bereaved parents through our monthly support evenings where parents can chat informally over a cup of tea or coffee about how they are coping with their loss. We also provide every maternity & neonatal unit in Northern Ireland with Sands leaflet packs and Memory Boxes. The Memory Boxes include a hand-knit blanket, 2(Identical) teddy bears, one for baby, one for the parents and an inkless hand & footprint kit. The boxes encourage parents to create as many memories of their baby as possible in the short time they have with them. Training, accredited by the Royal College of Midwives, is also provided to health professionals and is delivered by the SandsUK team of facilitators. We also support research into the causes of baby deaths and in 2014 £50,000 was donated by SandsNI to fund several SandsUK projects. We have a NI Helpline 07740993450 which is available during office hours for parents to speak to someone about their loss. We have a dedicated Baby Garden in Portadown where parents can lay a simple stone with their baby’s name hand-painted on it among the flowers and plants in the garden and next to the other babies stones. We also have 2 Christmas carol services, Portadown and Derry, where parents are invited to buy a toy or gift for the age their child would be each Christmas. These toys & gifts are donated to the St Vincent De Paul/ Salvation Army toy appeal. Everything we do is funded by the fundraising efforts of the parents we support and we are extremely grateful to everyone who fundraises for us because without their efforts we could not continue to support the parents who are bereaved every year in Northern Ireland.