At least 2,500 jobseekers are expected to attend the 5th annual Intreo Careers Fair at the Printworks Conference Centre, Dublin Castle today which runs from 10.00am to 3.30pm.  The Careers Fair is organised by the Department of Employment Affairs & Social Protection.

Over 50 exhibitors will take part, primarily employers seeking to fill vacancies in their organisations, offering roles in construction, sales, hospitality, healthcare, retail and accounting among others. Hundreds of different types of roles are available across a range of experience levels and occupations including the Public Appointments Service. 

There will also be lots of advice on training, upskilling and job search supports available throughout the day. Jobseekers will be able to avail of one to one personalised professional career and job searching advice from HR and recruitment specialists. 40 professional career coaches will be offering 200 career coaching appointments during the day.  

Attendees can also avail of seminars running throughout the day on topics ranging from ‘Social Media Job Searching’ and ‘Accessing the Hidden Jobs Market’ to ‘Starting your own Business’, ‘Re-Entering the Jobs Market’ and ‘Careers in the Public Service’.

Do make sure that you are registered to vote in the Council Elections. 

You need to register by 17 April to vote in the local and mayoral elections in England on 3 May.

You may need the following, if you have them:

• your National Insurance number
• your passport if you’re a British citizen living abroad

You need to be on the electoral register to vote in elections and referendums.

The two benefit payments affected by the holidays are the Child Benefits and Tax Credits which typically hit your bank account on April 2.

Instead, the Child Benefits payment date was pulled back ahead of the Bank Holiday to Thursday March 29.

Similarly the Tax Credits will be payed out earlier on Thursday March 29.

The prior Tax Credits payments due Friday March 30, will also be released a day early on Thursday March 29.

When are benefits normally paid?

Attendance Allowance: Usually paid every four weeks.

If your payment is due on a Bank Holiday, you will usually be paid on the last working day before the holiday

Basic State Pension: Usually paid every four weeks.

Carer’s Allowance: Paid weekly in advance or every four or 13 weeks.

Child Benefits: Paid every four weeks or on a weekly basis if you are a single parent or reaching certain benefits.

Disability Living Allowance: Usually paid every four weeks.

Employment and Support Allowance: Usually paid every two weeks.

Jobseeker’s Allowance: Usually paid every two weeks.

Income Support: Usually paid every two weeks.

Tax credits, for example, Working Tax Credits: Typically paid every four weeks or on a weekly basis. NI Direct advises recipients to check their payment dates for tax credits or Child Benefits if paid every four weeks.

It is "last-chance saloon" for companies to report on their gender pay gap, the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission has warned, saying the body "will be coming after" firms that omit to do so in time. Companies with more than 250 employees are obliged to publish their gender pay gap by 4th April. So far, 3,700 businesses have done; 5,300 have not. Rebecca Hilsenrath, head of the EHRC, said: "Let me be very clear: failing to report is breaking the law." Of those companies that do not comply, Hilsenrath said "There will be a list and this will be made public. We will be conducting a statutory investigation[...] It will be very public."

Reacting to the news that the Welsh Government is to provide local authorities across Wales with a package of £1 million to tackle “period poverty” and improve facilities and equipment, Plaid Cymru councillor Elyn Stephens said: “I am pleased that the Welsh Government is acknowledging the problem that exists out there for thousands of girls all over Wales. This has been the culmination of months and months of hard work and campaigning.

“This all started with a Notice of Motion I submitted to Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council and it was driven forward by the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee Working Party, which was chaired by my Plaid Cymru council colleague Shelley Rees Owen.

“It may be a step in the right direction but the money the Welsh Government is providing is not enough. Under these proposals each local authority will receive, on average, £10,000 per year. In Rhondda Cynon Taf we were talking about allocating £50,000 for six months of this policy.

“I hope that the resources are also used to educate pupils of all genders and teachers of all genders about the issues surrounding menstruation. I would also like to get away a little bit from the term ‘period poverty’ - although it is an important consequence of what we are doing, I see this more as an issue of equality and I want sanitary products to be viewed as an essential product in the same way that toilet paper is viewed.”  

ABC Tip: Beat stamp price rises. Next Mon - standard 1st & 2nd class up 2p. The price of a 1st class standard letter rises to 67p, 2nd class to 58p. Large letters rise by 3p to £1.01 (1st class) and to 79p (2nd). As stamps just say 1st or 2nd, if you buy today stamps are valid forever.

The Colchester Peoples Assembly are holding their AGM on the Thursday March 22nd 2018, at the Friends Meeting House, Church St, 7.30pm.

This is the agenda: 

Welcome new members, introduction to People’s Assembly

Update on bank account/finances- Max

New arrangements for meetings

Planning for next 6 months

AOB:

NOTICES
Saturday 12th May – National TUC Demo in London for workers rights, depends on finances but we are unlikely to run a bus to this.

Saturday July 7th- NHS 70th birthday in London- hope to run several buses to London.

The current lack of preparedness about the forthcoming changes to the Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) rules is a “horror” that shows both the meanness and lack of foresight of the government, commented Stephen Lloyd MP, Liberal Democrat spokesman for Work and Pensions. 

It has emerged that around 100,000 mortgage holders could be plunged into hardship and, in some instances, lose their homes due to changes soon to be made to the Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) rules. 
 
Previously, SMI was a benefit paid to people to help with their mortgage interest costs if unemployed or disabled. Last summer it was announced this is to be scrapped and replaced with a system of loans, on which interest will be charged. 
 
The Department for Work and Pensions announced the changes in the summer of 2017 and they are due to come into force this coming April. The changes affect 124,000 people, but so far only around 10,000 have registered for the loans, meaning well over 100,000 vulnerable people could be left high and dry without their mortgage payments being made.

Image: Stephen Lloyd MP, Liberal Democrat spokesman for Work and Pensions.  

He said: 

“Every month we seem to be hearing yet more examples of this Conservative government being both mean-spirited and unintelligent; this mortgage interest benefit change is a classic example. It will force some homeowners into even more debt, and will force others to sell their homes putting themselves at the mercy (and cost) of their local council’s housing department. Which, naturally, will cost the taxpayer more in housing benefit than keeping them in their own house by paying mortgage interest payments. An absolutely ridiculous decision.
 
“Furthermore, the government have extended the waiting time for the SMI payments to begin by an astonishing 23 weeks – on top of the original 16 week wait - so struggling claimants will now have to wait most of the year before even getting the new support. I wonder what their mortgage holders will have to say about that?

“The Tories reputation for economic competence is being entirely shredded by this incompetent and, frankly, dim government. These changes must be delayed until more people are, at least, acknowledged by the DWP to have taken the necessary steps to adjust their mortgage re-payments. Otherwise we are heading for yet another policy car-crash.”

Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD said renters are being priced out of Dublin into commuter counties – but without proper infrastructure supports being put in place.

Deputy Murphy was commenting on today’s figures from the Residential Tenancies Board which show that in the four counties of Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow, the average rent now exceeds €1,000 per month.

The Kildare North TD said:

“Skyrocketing rents in Dublin are clearly driving demand in neighbouring counties in a way that is totally chaotic and unplanned. The chronic supply shortages and high prices in the capital are the root cause of the rent increases in the commuter counties of Kildare, Meath and Wicklow. There is growing pressure on these counties in terms of provision of schools and other public facilities and services including transport links.

Image: Dublin Renters Association.

Since 2011, the Department for Work & Pensions has underpaid an estimated 70,000 people who transferred to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) from other benefits, according to a National Audit Office investigation today. The Department estimates it will need to pay a total of between £570 million to £830 million more ESA than it previously expected by the end of the 2022-23 financial year.

The error related to people who may have been entitled to income-related ESA but were instead only awarded contribution-based ESA, and therefore may have missed out on premium payments.

The average underpayment is likely to be around £5,000 but some people will be owed significantly more. A review of a sample of 1,000 cases suggests that 45,000 claimants  entitled to the enhanced disability premium only may be owed around £2,500 and that around 20,000 claimants who are entitled to the severe disability premium may be owed around £11,500 each. A small number could be owed around £20,000. 

The Department has committed to correcting its error and paying arrears by April 2019. It has redeployed staff to review around 300,000 cases, at a cost of around £14 million, to identify people affected and pay arrears where due.

National Audit Office investigation has made valuable findings. 

Eligible claimants will only be paid arrears as far back as 21 October 2014, the date of a legal tribunal ruling. The Department estimates that there may be approximately £100 million to £150 million of underpayments accrued before 21 October 2014, which it cannot pay, in addition to the £340 million it will pay for the period after 21 October 2014.

The error happened because the Department's process for converting people's benefits to ESA did not reflect its own legislation, which from 2010 obliged the Department to assess people's entitlement to both income-related ESA and contribution-based ESA on conversion. In practice it did not always do this.

It took several years for the Department to realise the significance of the error. The Department identified the issue in individual cases at least as early as 2013. However it did not recognise the issue as systemic until early 2014 when staff identified the error as a major cause of ESA underpayments in preparing its 2013-14 financial year fraud and error statistics. In June 2014, the Department issued new advice designed to prevent further errors occurring but did not take steps to assess existing cases. The Department later updated its formal guidance in February 2015. This guidance improved the process for people in the ESA 'support group' for those with the most limiting illnesses and disabilities but the NAO found it did not cover people in the work-related activity group (who are required to undertake activity such as training or CV skills courses).  

From June 2014 and throughout 2015, the Department did not address existing errors. During this time, two key Upper Tribunal cases helped to clarify the law on ESA claims, including conversion cases. The Department did not recognise at the time that the first of these decisions on 21 October 2014 should have triggered a formal exercise to identify people whose legal entitlements might be affected. Similarly, a further decision in June 2015 prompted discussion but no clear action.

From May 2016, the Department's fraud and error team prompted the Department to take action after identifying an ongoing and significant issue with underpayment of ESA premiums. However, in the first briefing to Ministers on this issue in February 2017, the Department recommended undertaking further analysis and seeking further legal advice, while reserving its position on the potential response. In July 2017, the Department recognised that it had a legal responsibility to identify the people affected.  They began contacting people and making payments from August 2017.

In late 2017 two Departmental internal reviews identified lessons. They concluded that a stronger grasp of the legal obligations and risks would have led to more informed discussions in 2014 and recommended that decisions involving legal risk should be made by managers of appropriate seniority; and, that the Department's finance staff could have been notified more quickly so they could understand the implications for the Department's financial reporting and its budget.

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said today:

“The facts of this case are that tens of thousands of people, most of whom have severely limiting disabilities and illnesses, have been underpaid by thousands of pounds each, while the Department for several years failed to get a proper grip on the problem. The Department has now committed to fixing this error by April 2019, but not everyone will be repaid all the money they have missed out on.”

ABC Note: 

1. Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is a benefit that the Department for Work & Pensions (the Department) pays to people who have limited capability to work because they are disabled or ill. In 2016-17, the Department paid out around £15 billion in ESA to approximately 2.4 million people. There are two main types of ESA: contribution-based, which is based on National Insurance contributions; and income-related, which is a means-tested benefit. Income-related ESA can be paid on its own, or as a top up to contribution-based ESA.

2. Not everyone who has been affected by the error will receive the full amount they have been underpaid. This is because of the effects of Section 27 of the Social Security Act 1998. Under section 27, when the Upper Tribunal or court considers an appeal under social security legislation and establishes the relevant points of law, the law as established takes effect from the date of the court’s decision. In this case it was on the 21 October 2014 that the Upper Tribunal decided that contribution-based ESA and income-related ESA were a single benefit and that the Department must assess people for both elements when determining their entitlement to ESA. The Department is therefore proceeding on the basis that it can only legally pay arrears as far back as the date of this ruling.

Image: Nat Audit Office