By Alannah O’Connor
Are refugees in Northern Ireland taking advantage of the benefit system, as harmful rhetoric often indicates? Or are they effectively blocked from accessing the social security support they are entitled to under international human rights law by administrative errors and poor policy design? This article will explore access to social security for post-status refugees in Northern Ireland . Across the United Kingdom, matters relating to immigration and asylum are ‘reserved matters’, meaning responsibility for them rests with Westminster, whereas social security provision is ‘transferred’ and falls within the competence of Northern Ireland’s devolved institutions. This article seeks to highlight the extent to which the Northern Ireland Executive can have a positive impact on the lives of refugees through its devolved powers, and the importance of the Executive taking action to ensure it is acting in compliance with international law.
International Human Rights Law obligations
Access to social security is identified in international law as vital to guaranteeing human dignity through its role in alleviating poverty and promoting social inclusion. It is one of the most fundamental socioeconomic rights, and as such, is protected under Article 9 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). As in the rest of the United Kingdom, once an individual is granted refugee status by the Home Office, they have the same social security entitlements as British nationals. This is in line with the UK and Northern Ireland’s international human rights law obligations under Article 24 of the 1951 Refugee Convention. The requirement of equivalence of access affords refugees more favourable treatment in this regard than migrants generally, many of whom are subject to no recourse to public funds. The Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR) takes this obligation a step further in General Comment 19, compelling States to give special attention to refugees as a group who traditionally face difficulties when exercising the right to social security.
Article 35(2) of the Refugee Convention sets out an important relevant obligation: it mandates States to collect data on refugees and the local laws that impact them. Yet, an issue impacting all areas of refugee support is a lack of data on refugees’ experiences with the systems in Northern Ireland. The most recent data shared by the Department for Communities (DfC) shows that 14% of migrants in Northern Ireland were in receipt of benefits, but there is no clarification on how many of these people are refugees. It also does not provide information on the number of people who are eligible yet unable to access benefits or who have had serious delays in receiving them. The last published data on refugees’ experiences with the social security system in Northern Ireland was collected in 2016.
When ratifying an international human rights treaty, the State accepts a tripartite obligation to respect, protect, and fulfil the rights included in that treaty. It is not enough for the right to access social security to be respected on paper. It must work in practice for the Northern Ireland Executive to be in compliance with its human rights obligations.
The Northern Ireland context
When an asylum seeker receives refugee status, they move from the auspices of the Home Office to the Northern Ireland Executive. Within the Executive, financial support falls under the remit of the Department for Communities. Alongside supporting refugees to access social security, the DfC has strategic responsibility for equality, anti-poverty, sports, arts and culture, languages, finding employment, historic environment, housing, regeneration, benefits and pensions, community and voluntary sector development, social legislation, and child support. The significant size of this portfolio has allowed the absence of any discussion around refugee support on the Department’s meeting agendas, strategic priorities, and Assembly written questions, to largely fly under the radar.
The Executive Office’s Refugee Integration Strategy identifies the transition from the Home Office system as a time when refugees are often at their most vulnerable to destitution. All going to plan, following a positive asylum decision, a refugee will receive a ‘discontinuation of support letter’ from the Home Office and a ‘Notice to Quit’ or ‘Vacate’ letter from Mears, the Northern Irish asylum housing provider, with a date on which asylum support (both money and accommodation) will cease. Within 14-days of receiving a positive asylum letter, an individual should gain access to their UKVI (eVisa) account, which they can use to claim social security in the same way as Northern Irish nationals. While this grants de jure access to social security, the tight turnaround times mean that incorrect advice or an administrative error can leave refugees without any financial support. Though the Northern Ireland Executive cannot change any of this, it does have the power to use this reality to inform its approach to social security access for refugees, potentially alleviating some of the pressure associated with the move-on period.
Increasing access to ocial security
In its Seventh Periodic Report on the UK and Northern Ireland, the ESCR Committee recommended that the Northern Ireland Executive take affirmative action measures within the social security system to combat the inequalities faced by refugees. The move-on process is not currently designed in a way that prioritises timely continuation of financial support, which creates a further challenge linked to moving systems.
Delays to UKVI account access are not uncommon, and individuals have received eVisas with incorrect or missing information, rendering them unusable. Refugees are advised to start the Universal Credit (UC) application process as soon as possible after receipt of an Asylum Decision Letter. However, access to an eVisa is a requirement for proving eligibility for benefits and for opening a bank account and so creates a delay in starting the process. As a result, refugees in Northern Ireland are being made destitute due to administrative errors.
Even when UKVI access comes in a timely manner, many Northern Ireland Jobs & Benefits (JBO) staff are unaware of the benefit entitlements of refugees and have been known to request unnecessary documents or refuse requests for emergency support payments that applicants are entitled to. This further lengthens the process and puts refugees at greater risk of destitution.
In this regard, it is notable that the Law Centre Northern Ireland’s Refugee Move on Guide suggests a number of requests that can be made to the JBO to progress the UC application process when experiencing these delays, such as using the Asylum Decision Letter and Application Registration Card to open an account, opening a UC account and providing bank details later, and applying for emergency support payments. However, this is reliant on the applicant knowing they are entitled to ask for these things. Further, any action remains at the discretion of the individual JBO worker.
Based on the ESCR Committee’s recommendation and the reports of administrative errors, the DfC should consider introducing a system within JBO that tags applicants as refugees and, as such, accounts for inter alia the different documentation they may possess, the delays they may be facing in receiving vital documentation, the possibility that they don’t have immediate access to a bank account, and the time sensitive nature of their situation.
Additionally, in its 2024-2027 Programme for Government the Northern Ireland Executive commit to developing a “trauma-informed public sector”. This commitment is in the context of equipping staff with the skills to support people who have had negative experiences related to the Troubles and its continuing legacy. To further combat the inequalities faced by refugees, the Executive could extend this training to include information about working with people who have experienced violence in their country of origin or during their journey to the UK, and individuals who have experienced administrative violence within the asylum and refugee systems.
Welfare Mitigation Support for Refugees
Even if these administrative changes are made, the five week wait for the first UC payment only allows for a one-week buffer period after the end of the 42 day move-on period; the tight turnaround time increases the risk of migrant destitution. While the Northern Ireland Executive cannot control the direction of law and policy matters that remain with the central UK government, there are changes that can be made to better support refugees in spite of the UC conditions.
In its Social Insecurity report, Amnesty International found that inadequate access to social security violates the rights to food, housing, health and education. This is made clear by the impacts of harmful policies like the Welfare Reform Act 2012. Despite the parity principle, which guarantees equal access to benefits across the UK by maintaining a single security system, the Northern Ireland Executive used their devolved powers to introduce a welfare mitigation package in response to the Welfare Reform Act. A remaining protection from this support package is the Universal Credit New Claims Grant, which forms part of the Discretionary Support System that supports UC applicants during the five-week wait for the first payment. In order to make its international human rights law obligations strategically meaningful, the Executive could use these devolved powers to increase the level of support available to refugees during the move from Asylum Support to Universal Credit.
Additionally, the ESCR Committee urged the Northern Ireland Executive to develop social security measures that view poverty through an intersectional lens, specifically in the case of migrants and ethnic minorities. By prioritising refugee applicants to the Universal Credit New Claims Grant, increasing the monetary support they receive under it, and removing the regulation that precludes individuals from accessing both a New Claims Grant and a Discretionary Support Grant in a 12-month period, the Executive would be making a meaningful step towards preventing destitution.
Advice sector
A final issue associated with the transition from asylum support to UC is the lack of reliable information online. The Refugee Integration Strategy recognises that there are “general issues with [accessing] quality information regarding both the needs and rights of people”. A web search brings up three relevant results, only two of which are in date. The Northern Ireland Direct page ‘Asylum Seekers and Refugees: Applying for Benefits’, is the only government advice page that appears in the search. The information it contains is not tailored to refugees and contains several links which are either broken or link to confusing, irrelevant information. The Law Centre Northern Ireland’s Refugee Move-On Guide is the only up-to-date, comprehensive source of information on how to apply for benefits as a refugee in Northern Ireland.
It was additionally found in the DfC’s Independent Review of Discretionary Support that the lack of information online had crippled individuals and left them reliant on food banks. While not specifically aimed at refugees, this review highlights the importance of being able to access information in a timely manner as the longer it takes an individual to apply for financial support the less money they will receive.
In order to achieve its commitment of ‘integration from day one‘, and make its human rights obligations strategically meaningful, the Executive could conduct an audit of existing information online regarding refugee access to social security and amend and update it to include all relevant information.
Summary and recommendations
While the Northern Ireland Executive has limited power over refugee issues, it should be looking at what it can and must do within the devolved powers it does have. As a key state actor, the Northern Ireland Executive has international human rights law obligations under the Refugee Convention and ICESCR. This article established that, while refugees in Northern Ireland have their right to social security respected on paper, in reality, many refugees risk destitution as a result of a lack of support moving from the Home Office asylum system to the protection of the Department for Communities. The process is marred with administrative hurdles, information deficits, and a Universal Credit system that fails to recognise the unique circumstances and intersecting needs of individuals who have just received refugee status, thus creating barriers to the proper realisation of Northern Ireland’s international human rights law obligations. An impactful action the Northern Ireland Executive could take to make its these obligations strategically meaningful is to collect accurate data on the refugee experience in Northern Ireland. This data could be used to streamline the transition from the Home Office to the DfC, and substantiate the following recommendations:
- The Committee for Communities should consider commissioning a report on the experiences of refugees accessing benefits to be presented to the Minister for Communities and the wider Executive.
- The Department for Communities should consider creating a streamlined system within Jobs & Benefits that offers additional administrative support to refugees applying for Universal Credit to avoid prolonging the gap between the last Asylum Support payment and first Universal Credit one.
- The Department for Communities should consider prioritising refugee applicants to the Universal Credit New Claims Grant to support them in the time between the last Asylum Support payment and the first Universal Credit one.
- The Department for Communities should consider conducting an audit of existing information online regarding refugee access to social security and amend and update it to include all relevant information.
Alannah O’Connor is an LLM student at Ulster University School of Law and a member of the Migration Policy Clinic team at Ulster University Law Clinic.
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