Poverty journal

A new vision for social security

Eileen Evason and Kevin Higgins report on the welfare reform mitigation programme, designed to lessen the impact of some of the harshest aspects of the system in Northern Ireland.

Participatory budgeting involves engaging citizens in a community-based approach to the allocation of public money. In this article, Rosie Ilett and Richard Brunner describe a recent participatory budgeting exercise in Glasgow, in which residents in an East End neighbourhood voted on how to spend £205,000 of council funds to reduce child poverty.

The Youth Obligation is the government’s flagship youth employability programme, designed to support young people aged 18 to 21 making a new universal credit claim into employment, work related training or an apprenticeship.

Welfare rights advisers use the law on a daily basis to challenge decisions on social security benefits and to ensure their clients receive their legal entitlement. However, there are occasions when what needs to be challenged is not a decision which has not been taken in accordance with the existing law, but rather the law itself.

The expected date for Britain to leave the European Union, March 29 2019, has come and gone, but the nature of the UK’s future relationship with the European Union remains uncertain.

The United Nations’ Agenda 2030 was agreed at a global level in 2015. It set out 17 ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ on a range of social and environmental issues, to be achieved by all countries.

Spring saw the release of new poverty figures for the UK. This year they did not show a rise on the main headline measure we use (relative child poverty after housing costs), but did show alarming jumps in so-called ‘absolute’ child poverty.

The impact of poverty on children’s education is well documented and many schools are now developing initiatives to support children and families who are living on a low income.

The planned implementation of welfare reform brought the Northern Ireland Assembly to the brink of collapse in 2015 due to political concerns about the impact of the major changes on vulnerable people. Following negotiations between the parties and with the government, the ‘fresh start agreement’ was passed. This led to the introduction of a £585 million welfare reform mitigations package designed to lessen the impact of some of the harshest aspects of the new system. The package is due to expire in 2020 and concerns are mounting about a subsequent ‘cliff edge’. Ciara Fitzpatrick, Kate McCauley and Kevin Higgins look at the implications and what should be done.