Welfare Reform

Last week Housing Rights’ Policy Team were part of a delegation of Cliff Edge NI Coalition members who met last week with Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey, along with senior Department for Communities officials Colum Boyle and Anne McCleary.

From 1 January 2019 new claimants of Universal Credit will have access to a contingency fund without having to first apply for an advance payment. 

The contingency fund was set up to assist those who had moved to Universal Credit, following explicit recommendations in the Evason Report for a fund "...to make emergency payments where hardship occurs as a result difficulties which are not due to any fault on the part of the claimant." 

Housing Rights is one of over 100 members of the Cliff Edge NI Coalition, who have come together to highlight their shared concerns about the potential ‘cliff edge’ of the end of the welfare reform mitigations in March 2020, and their fears about a range of new welfare challenges which have emerged since the original mitigations were introduced.

The Coalition’s briefing paper outlines our key messages: