Ending Poverty in Northern Ireland: A Civil Society Roadmap for Real Change
As poverty deepens and inequality continues to rise across Northern Ireland, the Anti-Poverty Strategy Group - a coalition of civil society organisations including NICVA - has released an updated set of recommendations urging the NI Executive to take decisive and meaningful action to address poverty, its root causes and impact.
The groups revised paper reflects the worsening economic climate, rising poverty levels, and serious concerns about the current draft strategy , which is now out for public consultation. Civil society groups and organisations have called for the draft strategy to be withdrawn, arguing that it falls short of the basic requirements for a credible and effective anti-poverty strategy - and simply isn’t fit for purpose.
Introduction
The groups paper sets out an updated and wide-ranging set of recommendations to help shape and inform a robust Anti-Poverty Strategy for Northern Ireland. Produced by civil society members of the Anti-Poverty Strategy Group - including NICVA - it builds on its original 2022 publication and and takes into account the changing political, economic, and social context.
It’s a response to the worsening economic situation, rising levels of child and in-work poverty, and the lack of real progress from government in tackling these issues. It also reflects serious concerns from across civil society about the ’ draft Anti-Poverty Strategy recently published for consultation by the Department for Communities. There’s been a strong, united call for the draft strategy to be withdrawn, with analysis showing it doesn’t meet the basic standards of what a credible, effective strategy should look like - and just isn’t fit for purpose
Background to the updated paper
The Anti-Poverty Strategy Group is made up of former members of the Anti-Poverty Co-Design Group, which was set up in January 2021 by the then Minister for Communities. The Co-Design Group was tasked with working collaboratively with the Department for Communities to inform the development of an Anti-Poverty Strategy for Northern Ireland.
Building on the foundational work of an Expert Advisory Panel, the Co-Design Group engaged with departmental officials throughout 2021. In 2022, amidst concerns as to lack of progress, the group chose to produce its own recommendations paper, presenting a comprehensive, evidence-based set of proposals. This document was published in September 2022 and formally submitted to the then Minister for Communities.
Since then, members of this group have convened to revise their original paper, making sure its recommendations reflect the current social, political, and economic realities.
This updated version responds to:
- A continued rise in child poverty
- The cost-of-living crisis and growing inequality
- A lack of ambition, clarity, and resourcing in the Executive’s draft Anti-Poverty Strategy
- Concerns about the design process and limited input from civil society
- Ongoing political instability and slow legislative progress
- Wider policy landscape and developments
- The need to better reflect lived experience and up-to-date evidence
Summary of its key messages and recommendations
This updated paper reaffirms a civil society vision for an Anti-Poverty Strategy that’s rights-based, inclusive, and genuinely transformative. It offers a practical, community-informed blueprint for making real progress in tackling poverty across Northern Ireland.
Why It Matters
Even though there’s a legal requirement under the Northern Ireland Act, the Executive still hasn’t delivered an Anti-Poverty Strategy that’s fit for purpose. The Anti Poverty Strategy Group - which brings together expert voices from across the community and voluntary sector, trade unions, and arm’s-length bodies - is putting forward a comprehensive framework grounded in human rights and lived experience.
Core Principles for an Anti-Poverty Strategy
The Group has advised that the development and delivery of an effective Anti Poverty Strategy should be underpinned by a number of core principles:
- Comprehensive and Rights-Based: The strategy must be overarching and grounded in objective need, supported by robust evidence and a rights-based approach.
- Clear Targets and Timely Delivery: It should include specific, timebound targets and build on the extensive work already undertaken to ensure swift implementation.
- Eradication as the Goal: The vision must be the complete eradication of poverty. It is unacceptable for even one person or child to live in poverty—in terms of a long term vision anything less than eradication falls short.
- Lifecycle and Place-Based Approach: The strategy should adopt a lifecycle approach, incorporate place-based interventions, and address cross-cutting issues such as housing, employment inclusion, and access to services.
- Adequate Resourcing: Full and sustained resourcing is essential to ensure the strategy’s success.
- Cross-Departmental Accountability: Delivery and accountability must be shared across departments, with the strategy aligning and integrating Executive policies aimed at tackling poverty, its root causes and impacts.
- Cross-Sectoral Collaboration: Development and implementation should involve collaboration across sectors.
- Lived Experience at the Core: The strategy must incorporate the insights and expertise of people with lived experience of poverty. Understanding poverty through an intersectional lens is critical to designing effective and inclusive responses.
Strategic Vision
The paper proposes a bold vision whereby:
“Northern Ireland is an equal society where poverty and its impacts are eradicated, and that respects, protects, promotes and fulfils the rights of those at risk of poverty to ensure they achieve their aspirations.”
Six High-Level Outcomes
To realise this vision, the group recommends the strategy commit to six outcomes:
- Legislative Commitment: Creation of an Anti-Poverty Act with statutory targets and an independent commission.
- Child Poverty Reduction: Halve child poverty by 2035 through direct payments, benefit reform, and cost-free education.
- Working-Age Poverty Elimination: Ensure all working-age individuals have sufficient income, whether in or out of work.
- Older People’s Poverty Reduction: Halve pensioner poverty by 2035, with improved access to benefits and services.
- Place-Based Investment: Transform the most deprived areas through targeted investment and community wealth building.
- Equitable Public Services: Guarantee timely, high-quality services for all, underpinned by dignity, fairness, and respect.
Key Recommendations
Some specific recommendations put forward by group members, informed by their insights and expertise include:
Child Poverty
- Introduce a new weekly Child Payment (£25 per child)
- Restore benefit levels to pre-austerity standards
- Reduce family outgoings and make education cost-free (uniforms, meals, transport)
- Deliver a targeted early education and childcare strategy
- Provide tailored support for vulnerable children
Working-Age Adults
- Address low pay and precarious work
- Expand collective bargaining rights
- Reform Universal Credit and end the five-week wait
- Mitigate the two-child limit and benefit cap
Older People
- Protect the State Pension Triple Lock
- Improve benefit uptake and advice services
- Address material deprivation and digital exclusion
- Support for older workers and plan for an ageing population
Place-Based Poverty
- Invest in the 20% most deprived communities
- Deliver regional balance and rural-proofed services
- Empower communities through participatory budgeting
- Establish a Community Wealth Fund
Cross-Cutting Issues
- Expand social housing and regulate private rentals
- Improve transport and broadband access
- Ensure access to independent advice and legal services
- Eradicate fuel, food, and period poverty.
Civil Society’s Role
The paper underscores just how vital the voluntary and community sector is when it comes to tackling poverty. For years, groups and organisations have stepped in to fill the gaps left by government. But right now, the sector is stretched thin and underfunded. If we’re serious about ending poverty, civil society needs to be recognised as an equal partner in shaping and delivering the strategy.
Next Steps
This updated recommendations paper is not intended as a critique - it offers a roadmap to government to meaningful address poverty. It calls for a rights-based, inclusive, and outcomes-driven strategy that reflects the lived experiences of those in poverty.
The Strategy Group has shared its updated recommendations with the Minister for Communities and his departmental officials and is committed to sharing with wider NI Executive, public sector and civil society stakeholders more broadly.
With the public consultation on the draft strategy closing on 19 September 2025, the urgency for action is clear. The group remains committed to working constructively with the Department for Communities, the wider Northern Ireland Executive, and government stakeholders to ensure that a future Anti-Poverty Strategy for NI is not only fit for purpose but truly transformative.
As ever, the sector stands ready to partner with government - but this must be matched by a firm commitment from the NI Executive to deliver a strategy that is ambitious, inclusive, and properly resourced..
NICVA is encouraging people, organisations, and groups responding to the Anti-Poverty Strategy to express support for the Strategy Group’s updated calls and recommendations,
If you're submitting feedback, we’d love for you to include support for the Group’s calls where relevant—and to feel free to use the report, its evidence, and proposals to help shape your response and strengthen your message to government.
Alongside the main report the group has also produced a Key Headlines document which provides an overview of the groups key messaging and recommendations - a copy of which is included in this article.
Downloads
Hubs
- policy public affairs
Topics
- anti poverty
