January 2019

The Department for Communities has published results of its survey of the attitudes of people who currently claim benefits towards welfare reform. This report establishes a baseline  for future research the Department will carry out into experiences and attitudes of welfare reform and are part of a wider ongoing evaluation of welfare reform, which is being carried out by the Department. 

Our experience as a housing advice organisation is increasingly evidencing the devastating housing impact of welfare reform. We therefore welcome the finding by the NIAO  in its Welfare Reform Report 2019 that welfare reforms in Northern Ireland are ‘likely to have a major impact on housing’.

The Department for Communities has issued guidance to both tenants and landlords following a court judgment last summer which ruled that two letting agents must repay certain tenancy fees charged to a tenant. 

Departmental guidance

The Department issued the following guidance to tenants:

A report by the new Social Housing Commission calls for all political parties to see social housing as a key pillar of the national infrastructure in England and recommends a generational shift in housing policy, covering both social housing and the private rented sector.

The government has launched a consultation on a breathing space scheme for people in problem debt. The proposed scheme is accompanied by an additional proposal to introduce an associated statutory debt repayment plan (SDRP). Both the breathing space scheme and SDRP are intended to supplement existing debt management solutions.

The High Court ruled today that the DWP's treatment of UC claimants who are paid twice in one assessment period is unlawful, with the judgment descriping DWP's approach as "odd in the extreme".