Welfare Reform

Our Head of Policy, Kevin Higgins, recently briefed the Northern Ireland Assembly's Committee for Communities.

We welcome the announcement from Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey that the end date for bedroom tax mitigations has been removed.

Advice NI, the independent advice charity, has identified serious systemic failures affecting Universal Credit claimants, in particular Employment & Support Allowance (ESA) claimants moving from ESA to Universal Credit (UC). 

It has been a busy year for us all in the advice sector with very little prospect of any easement in workload. Indeed, if some of the predictions regarding the impact of Brexit occur, then things are likely to get more difficult for many of our already hard-pressed families and communities.

It’s been a busy few months on the advice line. People concerned with the Welfare Mitigations Cliff Edge due at the end of March 2020. Something that could affect up to 35,000 households in Northern Ireland. See below for some recent cases from the Welfare Reform Team. 

We're offering free, half-day training sessions on Universal Credit for groups of 10 or more.

A client phoned the Independent Welfare Reform Helpline for advice on a PIP decision that was taking a long time. The client had migrated from DLA to PIP and in doing so had asked for a paper assessment.

Welfare Reform Mitigations on a Cliff Edge

The independent welfare changes Helpline has seen an increase in calls from clients who have due to their vulnerability, inadvertently made a claim for Universal Credit which was not in their best interests.

Advice NI believes that the Chancellor has failed to listen to the concerns of low income households, including those in low paid work.