Contact

If you would like to hear more details around any of our projects listed on this page and ongoing work activity of the NHC, please contact Satty Rai.

We are undertaking a huge amount of activity to ensure that our members get the best support as we face the impact of Welfare Reform. You can read more about our work below.

Real Life Reform

Welfare reform changes are beginning to affect the lives of social housing tenants.  As the voice of housing in the North we know that these and future changes will impact our members’ tenants, their families, social networks and their communities and many will struggle to manage. As well as on going advice and support for members and their tenants affected by these changes we wanted to further understand how individuals were managing in their day to day lives.

Benefit Delay Inquiry

In September 2015, the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) submitted evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee inquiry into the timeliness and accuracy of delivery by the DWP. The potential problems that can arise when benefits are delayed or underpaid include people resorting to food banks for emergency food rations.

NHC members submitted information around the following areas:

• Organisations experiences to date
• Evidence of the impact on claimants as a result of benefit delays and/errors
• How DWP are delivering benefits and Universal Credit payments and problems/issues that claimants and organisations are experiencing.
• Case Studies

The NHC submission can be viewed here.

The Impact of Welfare Reform on Housing Employees

NHC were pleased to support Straight Forward who have undertaken this important research to capture the impact of welfare reform on front line staff in housing organisations. The findings demonstrate increased feelings of stress in the workplace, dealing with more complex and emotionally charged situations and the potential for tensions to emerge between senior managers and front line staff. We hope this research enables organisations to ensure their services are and remain properly supported as the impact of welfare reform changes continue to be felt. Straight-Forward can be found at www.straight-forward.co.uk.