Siobhán continues to work as part of the Working Group for the Cliff Edge Coalition on extending and strengthening the welfare mitigations package in Northern Ireland. Following the passing of the legislation to extend the Benefit Cap and Bedroom Tax mitigations the focus of Cliff Edge work will now be on strengthening the mitigations package with some possible new mitigations. Cliff Edge have been calling for new mitigations around the two-child limit, the Universal Credit five-week wait and improvements in the private rented sector. We await the publication of the Review into Welfare Mitigations and look forward to the important recommendations from this Review.

As a member of the Working Group Siobhán will also be pushing for a removal of the end date in the Benefit Cap mitigation which still remains as 2025. While the Bedroom Tax end date was removed the Benefit Cap end date remains and this is something that Siobhán is keen to see changed given that 80% of capped households are single parents and most single parents are women.