Our original campaign
How it began
Welfare reform mitigations were first agreed by the Northern Ireland Executive in 2016 to alleviate some of the harshest impacts of the Westminster welfare reform agenda.
With an impending ‘cliff edge’ of the mitigations in 2020, the Cliff Edge Coalition – a group of over 100 organisations from across Northern Ireland – was formed in 2018 to campaign to sustain and strengthen these vital measures to protect people across Northern Ireland.
What happened?
Following a successful campaign by the Cliff Edge Coalition, the Northern Ireland Assembly legislated to:
- indefinitely retain the mitigations for the bedroom tax
- close the loopholes which had prevented many claimants from accessing financial assistance through the mitigation scheme
- extend the benefit cap mitigations until 2025
The Cliff Edge Coalition is now highlighting that Northern Ireland faces another ‘cliff edge’ with many families living in poverty and struggling to make ends meet as they face a range of new welfare challenges exacerbated by the current cost of living crisis.
You can read more about our new campaign here.
Recognition for the campaign
The work of the Cliff Edge Coalition was recognised in 2020 through its nomination in the Best Coalition Campaign at the Sheila McKechnie Foundation National Campaigner Awards. This was a wonderful, UK-wide acknowledgement of the value of the Cliff Edge’s work in advocating for change. It was also nominated in the 2021 Chartered Institute of Housing Awards in the ‘Working in Partnership’ category.