Northern Ireland Welfare Mitigation scheme expanded

The Northern Ireland Welfare Mitigation scheme was expanded on 8 February 2022 to cover more households affected by the bedroom tax or the Benefit Cap, according to a benefits changes timetable published by Turn2us, an independent charity¹. A further expansion of the Welfare Supplementary Payments scheme in Northern Ireland followed on 10 February 2022¹.

Under the 10 February change, all families with children who are affected by the Benefit Cap will get a welfare supplementary payment to eliminate the effect of the cap, and all people affected by the bedroom tax will get a welfare supplementary payment¹. The bedroom tax refers to the under-occupancy charge applied to social housing tenants with spare rooms, and the Benefit Cap limits the total amount of benefit a household can receive¹.

The two dates sit alongside other changes to the benefits system in early 2022. On 5 February 2022, the period during which new claimants to Universal Credit and Jobseeker's Allowance could restrict their job search to fields in which they had previous experience was reduced¹. Until February 2022, new claimants could restrict their job search to favoured fields for 13 weeks; this was reduced to 4 weeks, after which people will be expected to apply for any job¹. Turn2us notes this is not a requirement to get a job within four weeks of claiming¹.

On 15 February 2022, people with a terminal illness became exempt from the requirement to accept a claimant commitment for Universal Credit, with terminal illness still defined as a reasonable expectation that the claimant will die within the next six months¹. In Northern Ireland, the definition of terminal illness has been changed from 6 to 12 months for all benefits¹.

Why it matters for households

The mitigation payments are intended to remove the effect of the bedroom tax and the Benefit Cap for affected households in Northern Ireland¹. For families with children hit by the Benefit Cap, the supplementary payment is designed to eliminate the cap's effect, and for those affected by the bedroom tax, a payment is made to offset it¹. The changes took effect from 8 and 10 February 2022¹.

The wider timetable shows other changes affecting household incomes across the UK during 2022. Annual uprating to benefits took place at the beginning of the financial year, and England, Scotland and Wales each made £150 cost of living payments through the council tax system, with different schemes in each country¹. The Scottish Child Payment doubled from £10 to £20 per week in April 2022 and rose to £25 per week from 14 November 2022, when it was expanded to families in Scotland with children under 16¹. Cost of living payments of £326 began from 14 July 2022 for people on Universal Credit, Pension Credit, income-related ESA, income-based JSA and Income Support, with a second payment of £324 made between 8 and 23 November 2022 for the same groups¹. A £400 reduction in energy bills applied to almost all households, with exceptions for those whose bills are included in their rent and people who live in park homes¹.

What happens next

The timetable records further dated changes. Managed Migration, the process of moving people off legacy benefits and onto Universal Credit, restarted from 9 May 2022, initially piloted in Medway and Bolton, and was later expanded to Falmouth and Truro, the London Borough of Harrow and Northumberland¹. The Administrative Earnings Threshold increased on 26 September 2022 to £494 per month for single people and £782 per month for couples¹. National Insurance fell by 1.25 percentage points on 6 November 2022¹. Adult Disability Payment opened for new applications across all of Scotland on 29 August 2022¹.