September 2017

Housing Rights, together with NIFHA, the Council for Homelessness in NI, Shelter NI, the Chartered Institute of Housing, the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action, Advice NI and Supporting Communities NI, is calling for the rollout of Universal Credit in Northern Ireland to be urgently reviewed to prevent issues that have arisen in England, Scotland and Wales being repeated in Northern Ireland.

Personal debt in the UK is growing quickly. The pace of that growth has increased since 2016 and is driven by consumer borrowing.  Consumer borrowing is growing at a rate of more than 10% per year.  The current high level and fast growth of consumer debt suggests that people are taking on unaffordable debts. 

The Scottish Government published their final report on the impacts of Welfare Reform on the people of Scotland . There has been a Statutory Duty on the Scottish Government to produce an Annual Report on the impacts of the UK Welfare Reform Act 2012 on the people of Scotland since 2013.