This conference will help inform Amnesty’s recommendations to the Northern Ireland Executive for an inquiry for the victims of historical institutional child abuse in Northern Ireland.

The conference will examine how to ensure an inquiry meets the needs of victims/survivors and fulfils international human rights obligations. It will enable victims/survivors, campaigners, commissioners and counsellors to share their experiences from the Republic of Ireland and Scotland, so that lessons may be learned in Northern Ireland.

For more details on this event, go to http://tinyurl.com/timeforjustice.

Law Centre (NI) has published a Redundancy Toolkit which will ensure voluntary sector advisers are equipped to provide effective and appropriate help to people facing redundancy in Northern Ireland.

Produced by specialist employment lawyers, the toolkit makes the complex law around redundancy accessible to local advisers who are faced with increasing numbers of clients in employment difficulties.

The toolkit, launched today by Social Development Minister Alex Atwood and Law Centre (NI) Assistant Director (Casework & Training) Maura McCallion, is designed for advisers to bring to workplaces where they may be called on to advise on redundancy situations and is divided into two sections. The first part provides a concise summary of the main areas of the law. The second part contains practical tools.  These include key checklists designed to help advisers and employee representatives identify and gather key information, assess the fairness of redundancy procedures and seek legal redress where necessary.

Download Redundancy Toolkit (PDF)

Speaking at the launch, Maura McCallion commented, 'As difficult times continue, it is important that the advice sector is able to give people accurate and clear independent advice about their employment situation. We hope advisers will bring this toolkit into workplaces with them and use the checklists to ensure that employees understand their legal position’'

Alex Attwood said: 'Helping people who are facing redundancy is absolutely crucial. It can be a very stressful time, especially if they do not know what to do next. This toolkit, for advisers in the voluntary advice sector, explains the complex area of redundancy, lay-off and employer insolvency so they will be better equipped to assist people at risk of losing their jobs.  I am pleased that my Department has supported the Law Centre (NI) to develop this vital resource, especially during this current economic climate.''

If you need a paper copy of the toolkit in a ring binder, please ring 028 9024 4401.

Help is at hand for students and their advisers, with Students and Benefits 2010-2011.

Students and Benefits is an on line guide to help students and their advisers work out their entitlement to social security benefits.

The guide is published by Law Centre (NI) in association with the National Union of Students /Union of Students in Ireland. It is available to advisers on the Publications/other Publications/Benefits and Tax Credits  page or from the following link:

Download Students & Benefits 2010 [PDF]

Students and student unions can also access it on www.nistudents.org and on NUSConnect, a new specialist resource and community website for UK and Ireland-wide NUS member unions, www.nusconnect.org.uk, which goes live on 20 August.

'More and more young people across Northern Ireland are seeking to enter further and higher education.  Others, such as unemployed people or single parents, go back to study to further their skills and improve their chances in an increasingly competitive labour market.  With our Students and Benefits guide, advisers and others working with students will be able to help them navigate the complex rules surrounding social security benefits for students,'  said Ursula O’Hare, Law Centre (NI) Assistant Director (Policy and Publications).

“As students get ready for the new academic year, it is vital that they understand how social security benefits are affected by their study.  We are glad that the Law Centre has once again made its expertise of social security benefits available to student advisers.  We are proud to be associated with the publication and distribution of Students and Benefits,'  added Ciarnan Helferty, NUS/USI student president.

Solicitor Patricia Carty, a social security legal adviser at the Law Centre, commented: 'This is an invaluable tool for anyone advising students on benefit entitlement.  Concise and written in plain English, it shines a very helpful light on this important and often neglected area of benefit law.'

Follow this link for a peek: Encyclopedia of Social Welfare Rights 2010

Law Centre (NI) members will receive a CD version in early September.  Legislation and rates may vary throughout the year.  Please make sure you are always working with the most up to date version.  Visit our website throughout the year for updates.

The government has announced its intention to abolish the 'certificate of approval' scheme. The scheme is expected to end in late 2010 or early 2011.

At present, any migrant who is already in the UK and is subject to immigration control must apply for a certificate of approval before s/he can get married or register a civil partnership in this country (unless getting married within the Anglican Church).

The government is now seeking to remedy the declaration by the UK courts that the scheme is incompatible with Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The new site brings together the legislative content currently held on the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) website and revised legislation from the Statute Law Database (SLD) to provide a single legislation service that replaces the current services. The OPSI and SLD websites are in the process of being decommissioned with users re-directed to this new service.

Uprating

• The government will adopt the Consumer Price Index for uprating of benefits and tax credits from April 2011.

DLA

• The government will introduce the use of 'objective medical assessments' for all DLA claimants from 2013/2014.

Tax credits

• From April 2011, the second income threshold for the family element of Child Tax Credit will reduce from £50,000 to £40,000 and, from April 2012, the family element of Child Tax Credit will be withdrawn immediately after the child element;
• from April 2011, the first and second withdrawal rates for tax credits will increase to 41 per cent;
• from April 2011, the baby element will be removed from Child Tax Credit and, from April 2012, the 50 plus element will be removed from Working Tax Credit;
• in April 2011, the child element of Child Tax Credit will increase by £150 above Consumer Price Index indexation and, in April 2012, it will increase by £60 above indexation;
• the government will not introduce the £4 supplement in Child Tax Credit for each child aged one and two from April 2012, which was announced in the March 2010 Budget;
• from April 2011, the level of in-year rises of income that will be disregarded from calculations of tax credit entitlement will decrease from £25,000 to £10,000 and, from April 2013, will be reduced further to £5,000;
• from April 2012, the period for which a tax credit claim and certain changes of circumstances can be backdated will be reduced from three months to one month; and
• from April 2011, people aged over 60 will qualify for Working Tax Credit if they work at least sixteen hours a week, rather than 30 as now.

Benefits and children

• From October 2011, lone parents whose youngest child is aged five or above will be eligible for Jobseeker's Allowance rather than Income Support, and existing claimants will be transferred from Income Support to Jobseeker's Allowance from April 2012;
• from April 2011 the government will restrict eligibility to the Sure Start Maternity Grant to the first child (or children where the first is a multiple birth);
• the Health in Pregnancy grant will be abolished from January 2011; and
• Child Benefit will be frozen for three years from April 2011.

Benefits for older people

• State pension will be uprated by a 'triple guarantee' of earnings, prices or 2.5 per cent, whichever is the highest, from April 2011 but the basic state pensions will increase by at least the equivalent of the retail price index;
• the standard minimum income guarantee of Pension Credit will increase in April 2011 by the cash rise in a full basic state pension; and
• the government will review the age at which the state pension age will rise to 66, and will consult shortly on how it will quickly phase out the Default Retirement Age from April 2011.

Housing costs and Housing Benefit

• From October 2010, the standard interest rate used to calculate support for mortgage interest payments will be set at a level equal to the Bank of England's published monthly Average Mortgage Rate, currently this will mean a reduction from a standard interest rate of 6.08 per cent to 3.87 per cent;
• from October 2011, local housing allowance rates will be set at the 30th percentile of local rents;
• from April 2013, housing entitlements for working age people in the social sector will reflect family size;
• deductions for non-dependants will be uprated in April 2011 on the basis of prices, reversing the freeze in these rates since 2001/2002;
• from 2013/2014, local housing allowance rates will be uprated in line with the Consumer Price Index;
• from April 2013, Housing Benefit awards will be reduced to 90 per centre of the initial award after twelve months for claimants receiving Jobseeker's Allowance;
• from April 2011, Housing Benefit claimants with a disability and a non-resident carer will be entitled to funding for an extra bedroom;
• from April 2011, local housing allowance rates will be capped at £250 per week for a one bedroom property, £290 per week for a two bedroom property, £340 per week for a three bedroom property and £400 per week for four bedrooms or more; and
• the government contribution to discretionary housing payments will be increased by £10 million in 2011/2012 and £40 million in each year from 2012/2013.

Frontline 76 is now available online. This issue focuses on employment issues including: workplace disputes, employment rights and details of an important victory in an equal pay case.

Other highlights include: Child poverty, Mental health rights, Asylum hardship, Migrant workers and housing.

See here for further details and a PDF download of the magazine

Law Centre (NI), the Appeals Service and University of Ulster School of Law held a conference on tribunal reform on 23 June at the Bar Library, Belfast.

The topics for discussed were:

- Moving tribunal reform forward: with the Lord Chief Justice for Northern Ireland Sir Declan Morgan

- Tribunal decision making – impact of oral hearings and consistency of outcomes: with Hazel Genn, Professor of Socio-Legal Studies at University College London

- The work of tribunals – the views of users and other stakeholders: with Gráinne McKeever of the University of Ulster School of Law

- Oversight and accountability: with Richard Thomas, Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council Chairperson

- A road map for tribunal reform: with Brian Thompson, Law School, University of Liverpool

A major new publication on tribunal reform: Redressing Users' Disadvantage was launched at the conference, and more details on it can be found here.