News Articles

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. 

Meeting Members’ Needs and Quality Requirements for the Sector

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.

A NEW training scheme by Advice NI is putting 15 unemployed people on the path to delivering advice.

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

As you may know the Department for Communities (DfC) is rolling out measures to ensure the advice sector is prepared to assist the general public through the implementation of the ongoing changes to the welfare system. 

We are delighted to launch our latest training brochure which is packed with lots of new and exciting courses and training programmes.

The only nationally accredited, Northern Ireland Specific, Level 3 Independent Advocacy Qualification allows practising Independent Advocates to learn and develop the skills required for employment in their Independent Advocacy role and it has begun this September with overwhelming demand.

On this run of the qualification we are proud to welcome 24 candidates from organisations such as The Patient Client Council, Alzheimer’s Society, Bryson Care, Mindwise, Mencap, Age Concern Causeway, Leonard Cheshire Disability, The British Deaf Association and Disability Action.

Our candidates have a busy academic year ahead of them and by July 2015 they will be submitting their portfolios of evidence. We are very much looking forward to working with them over the next 10 months.

We are also developing a level 2 award in Independent Advocacy suitable for those who wish to gain a better awareness of Advocacy but who do not necessarily practice, such as trust staff, social workers, criminal justice staff and associated professionals.

You can find further details of all of this in our training brochure.

If you have any enquiries about our Advocacy training please contact our training and Development Practitioner, Ryan Fitzsimmons.

Aimed at older peoples’ groups Northern Ireland wide, ‘Managing Your Money Better’ talks are funded by Comic Relief and delivered by Outreach Worker John Bradbury.

The talks are free, last about 45 minutes and cover a range of topics including: budgeting, maximising your income, dealing with debt, saving, borrowing and credit and avoiding scams.

‘I also give people some additional information, benefits information and contact details within Advice NI for further free advice.

‘So far, we have reached over 1,000 people with almost half living in rural isolated areas. The talks are aimed primarily at people over sixty and over 350 people reached are aged over 75.

‘I usually find people are most interested  in benefits uptake and avoiding scams. As an organisation, we are delighted to provide as much help and information as possible,’ added John.

So far, community groups, womens’ groups and churches have been amongst the venues visited.

More talks are planned for late Autumn to Winter. If you would like a contact, please contact John – ‘john@adviceni.net.’