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Northern Ireland is facing a cliff edge over welfare reform

With no ministers in Stormont, time is running out to protect tenants in Northern Ireland from the impacts of welfare reform, writes Ben Collins

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Northern Ireland is facing a cliff edge over welfare reform, writes Ben Collins of the NIFHA #ukhousing

Welfare reform mitigations in Northern Ireland end in 2020 and without ministers in place to renew them tenants will be placed in hardship writes Ben Collins #ukhousing

At our recent Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations advisory panel, we had a discussion with housing association chief executives and chairs on our forward work plan that quickly became a cathartic download on what were the main issues of concern.

The impacts of welfare reform came top. It’s hardly a surprise. What was surprising was the speed at which it grew as an issue.

Northern Ireland is well behind Great Britain in terms of the roll-out of Universal Credit; it only went ‘live’ in all areas of Northern Ireland in December 2018. However, like Scotland, Northern Ireland has benefited from a package of bespoke welfare mitigation measures to offset exposure to the bedroom tax among others.

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive agreed to allocate a total of £585m from executive funds over four years to ‘top-up’ the UK welfare arrangements in Northern Ireland.


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Mitigation support includes assistance regarding Employment and Support Allowance, Disability Living Allowance reassessment, loss of premiums, and loss of financial support for carers and mitigation of the benefit cap and bedroom tax.

However we are rapidly facing a cliff edge as those mitigations end in March 2020. It will require primary legislation by a government minister to extend these beyond this date.

With that in mind, housing associations have been working through the Universal Credit issues that are common across the UK: delays in payments, lack of information for landlords and rising rent arrears. We all know the narrative.

“However we are rapidly facing a cliff edge as those mitigations end in March 2020. It will require primary legislation by a government minister to extend these beyond this date”

However, we now have 12 months to address the risks posed by the ending of the welfare mitigations. As a sector we are working with other stakeholders, such as advice bodies, to analyse the impact and ascertain how we can stop the ending of these mitigations.

The Department for Communities has recently published a report, Review of Welfare Mitigation Schemes.

We will be using this and our engagement with other bodies to decide on how best to protect tenants at a time of constrained public finances and without a functioning Northern Ireland Assembly.

Early indications suggest that housing association tenants in Northern Ireland will have to find in excess of £5m per year to cover the lost rent support that offsets the bedroom tax.

This has the potential to cause increased hardship to tenants and a long-term financial risk to landlords though growing arrears predicated on a welfare policy that they have little control over.

Current housing policy in Northern Ireland isn’t well aligned to welfare policy and the opportunities for tenants to “right-size” to a smaller property to avoid the bedroom tax are being limited by both the housing Common Selection Scheme, which doesn’t offer any additional points for those willing to downsize, and the tenants’ lack of desire to move, despite some associations offering cash and moving costs incentives.

Housing associations are working ever harder with tenants on exploring options to minimise the financial stress that welfare reform and the removal of welfare mitigations are bringing.

New tenants, who will be exposed to the bedroom tax in a year’s time, are already being given support on budgeting and financial awareness well in advance of the changes.

Associations are putting more and more resources into welfare advice.

Luckily, in Northern Ireland the Common Housing Selection Scheme doesn’t permit means-testing of tenants, so the financial advice and support that is being offered by associations is vital while options to move are limited.

The lack of a Northern Ireland Assembly has meant that the full range of recommendations to update the Common Housing Selection Scheme cannot be implemented.

Civil servants are using guidance published by the secretary of state for Northern Ireland to make some changes where they can.

“Current housing policy does seem to be shifting away from building larger properties but according to the Department for Communities’ own estimate, realigning the stock could take 80 years”

We recognise that introducing all of the proposed changes in this policy could ease the difficulties in going to the bottom of the housing on the waiting list just to get a right-sized home.

Current housing policy does seem to be shifting away from building larger properties but according to the Department for Communities’ own estimate, realigning the stock could take 80 years.

That said, housing associations don’t expect that they should be the fall guy for welfare reform and they don’t think it’s fair that they should be expected to take the financial hit for policy beyond their control.

Housing associations are building homes to the standards and requirements of housing policy and have sustainable business models and rent levels that ensure they can continue to maintain their properties and create quality homes and thriving communities.

Welfare reform creates uncertainty for tenants and uncertainty for landlords, and planning for the end of mitigations takes that to another level.

This is one of the many headwinds that the sector is facing, however we remain committed to providing much-needed homes and playing our part in building and maintaining thriving vibrant communities.

Ben Collins, chief executive, Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations

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