BASW’s Code of Ethics outlines the social work profession’s commitment to alleviate poverty and to work with vulnerable and oppressed people to promote social justice.
BASW’s Anti-Poverty Practice Guide for Social Work and the Department of Health’s Anti-Poverty Practice Framework for Social Work in NI aim to bring poverty into the foreground of social work practice to advocate for structural solutions as well as providing social work interventions through individualised casework.
Since 2018 BASW NI has been a lead member of the Northern Ireland Cliff Edge Coalition (Cliff Edge). Cliff Edge comprises over 100 member organisations from the voluntary and third sectors. It was established to campaign for the extension of the Welfare Reform mitigations package introduced by the Northern Ireland Executive in 2016. The mitigations protected households in Northern Ireland from the harshest aspects of the UK Government’s welfare reform agenda, most significantly the Bedroom Tax and Benefits Cap.
As the mitigations were initially due to end in April 2020, the impending ‘cliff edge’ meant many households in Northern Ireland would abruptly lose vital support.
Successful campaigning by Cliff Edge resulted in the Northern Ireland Executive’s decision in 2022 to indefinitely retain the mitigations for the Bedroom Tax. The decision also closed the loopholes which had prevented many claimants from accessing financial assistance through the mitigation scheme, and extend the Benefit Cap mitigations until 2025.
BASW NI was central to Cliff Edge’s political engagement activities to support its campaign goals, including providing oral evidence to the Northern Ireland Assembly Communities Committee on 20 February 2020.
The Association also led the Cliff Edge social media activities, including the creation of social media resources to outline the Coalition’s asks.
In addition to continuing its campaign for further extension of the Benefit Cap mitigation, which is due to end in March 2025, Cliff Edge is calling for strengthening of the mitigations package in Northern Ireland. The harsh impacts of new welfare challenges which have emerged since the original mitigations were introduced, and which have been exacerbated by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, are increasingly affecting households causing financial hardship and poverty.
Cliff Edge is therefore calling for action to resolve the five-week wait in Universal Credit, removal of the Universal Credit two-child limit, and provision of support for private renters affected by the Local Housing Allowance. More information on these asks can be found in this Cliff Edge briefing paper from March 2024.
BASW NI will continue to play a central role in leading the Cliff Edge campaign to deliver further change.
In addition to BASW NI’s work with Cliff Edge, the Association works to raise awareness of the impacts of poverty on people who use social work services and society more widely.
The Department for Communities has lead responsibility for anti-poverty work within the Northern Ireland Executive. At the beginning of the new Assembly mandate, BASW NI wrote to the Minister for Communities and issued a briefing to members of the Northern Ireland Assembly Communities Committee outlining the urgent need for an anti-poverty strategy.
Department for Communities statistics indicate rates of poverty have increased across Northern Ireland. In 2023/23 18% of the population and 24% of children were in relative poverty.
The recent Independent Review of Children’s Social Care Services noted that pressures of poverty impinging on stressed and sometimes overwhelmed parents are likely to make more prevalent the ‘toxic trio’ of poor mental health, drug and alcohol misuse, and domestic violence.
Growing up in poverty increases the chances of a child coming into the care of social services. The UK-wide Child Welfare Inequalities Project found that children living in the most deprived areas of Northern Ireland are six times more likely to be placed on the Child Protection Register and are four times more likely to become looked after by social services than those in the most affluent areas.
Growing up in poverty also heightens the prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). which has associated increased long-term costs not only for social work services but also for the health service. It has impacts in terms of educational under achievement, with associated costs to the education system, social security, and economic development. It also leads to more young people becoming involved in antisocial behaviour and crime, resulting in additional costs for the criminal justice system.
As well as impacts on children, poverty has impacts at all stages of people’s lives. The Department of Health Health Inequalities Annual Report 2024 highlights indicators of poor mental health in the most deprived areas are approximately two and a half times the rate of those in the least deprived areas. There are also significant disparities in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy for people living in the most and least deprived areas of NI.
To make inroads to tackling the root causes of poverty it is vital that an anti-poverty strategy is urgently delivered by the Minister for Communities. BASW NI has called on the Minister to publish the strategy and has stressed the importance of it being informed by the recommendations of the Expert Advisory Panel appointed by the previous Communities Minister and the recommendations published by members of the Anti-Poverty Strategy Co-Design Group. The strategy must be appropriately funded and it is essential it receives the support of all Ministers in the NI Executive.
A key focus of the anti-poverty strategy must be the removal of the Universal Credit two-child limit which affects 10% of children in Northern Ireland. The limit restricts the child element of Universal Credit to the first two children in a family, with exceptions in a small number of cases, for example, instances of multiple birth. The result is that families in receipt of Universal Credit affected by the limit lose out on £3,455 per child per year for third, or subsequent children born after 1 April 2017.
The strong preference of BASW is for the removal of the Universal Credit two-child limit by the UK Government. Removal of the limit was a central priority in BASW’s 2024 General Election Manifesto. However, in the face of inaction by the UK Government, the Association, supports the call for the Northern Ireland Executive to offset the two-child limit. This can be done through introducing a better start larger families payment as recommended in the Welfare mitigations Review Independent Advisory Panel Report.
Often discussion focuses on the costs of intervening to address poverty. For example, during the debate on a Northern Ireland Assembly motion calling on the Minister for Communities to present a plan to remove the two-child limit, the Minister for Communities explained the cost of mitigating the limit would be £56.4 million per year. This represents a significant sum, particularly in light of the restrictions of the current Northern Ireland Executive Budget.
However, what is often fails to be discussed is the cost of inaction. The Comptroller and Auditor General has highlighted that the costs of child poverty to NI are between £825 million and £1 billion pounds per year and the Department of Health estimates the costs of health inequalities cost Northern Ireland up to £1.7bn every year.
It is essential that long term strategic decision making concerning how best to reduce poverty is based on a clear understanding of the costs to the NI Executive associated with the impacts of poverty across society. It is therefore vital the anti-poverty strategy contains provisions for an audit of the public service costs of poverty. Provision of this information is urgently needed to guarantee the actions of the anti-poverty strategy are appropriately targeted and adequately resourced, with additional funding provided by the Department of Finance to ensure effective and measurable interventions.
The need for an anti-poverty strategy was central to the written evidence BASW NI submitted to the Northern Ireland Assembly Public Accounts Committee inquiry into child poverty, and the written and oral evidence the Association provided to the Stormont Communities Committee.
