Money Management for Welfare Reform

Recent and upcoming welfare reforms are some of the most significant changes to the Social Security system since the inception of the Welfare State. These reforms, including the rollout of Universal Credit (UC) beginning in

Northern Ireland on the 27th September 2017, are likely to have both short term and long term adverse effects on people’s disposable income.

There are numerous scenarios in which an individual or family may find particular periods of financial difficulty such as;

• Application periods for benefits (first payment will take 6 weeks minimum for UC)
• Budgeting issues due to new payment schedule( Calendar monthly or twice calendar monthly)
• Loss of adult disability premiums
• Minimum income floor (self-employed)
• Not meeting qualifying criteria for the new benefits
• Benefit sanctions (e.g. loss of benefit for non-compliance)
• Benefit debt

• Benefit Cap

• Faced with the ‘Bedroom Tax’

In an effort to support communities with the transition to welfare reforms, the Department for Communities is funding Money Management training for the community and voluntary sector. This training is designed to equip community groups with the tools, resources and awareness to support users to manage their money and access the support services they require.

The training is FREE for eligible groups and offered on both a scheduled and in-house basis. Please see the full description attached for dates, eligibility and so on.

If you would like to support those in your community with Welfare Reform then please get in touch to book a session. You can do so by booking on our scheduled sessions through our website at www.adviceni.net or for further information or in-house booking contact our training team [email protected]. Please note that we will be offering further scheduled sessions in various locations across Northern Ireland so please check our website for additional sessions or contact our training team to express your interest.

Kind regards,

Advice NI Training Team