Gráinne McKeever is an executive director and former chair of the Law Centre, Northern Ireland, a not-for-profit specialist advice organisation. She is a Professor of Law and Social Justice at Ulster University and has published widely in the areas of social security law and access to justice. She is the assistant editor of the Journal of Social Security Law and currently teaches social security law and policy to undergraduate and postgraduate law students. Gráinne is the director of Ulster University’s Law Clinic, through which postgraduate law students provide social security advocacy for members of the public.
I joined the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) in 2014 as an academic with twenty years research and teaching expertise in social security law, alongside ten years as Executive Director of the Law Centre Northern Ireland. While all of this …
In August 2020 we launched a review of the social security measures that had been implemented by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland (DfC) to support those whose work, income and …
The government response to Covid-19 has included a series of easements, adjustments and additions to social security benefit entitlements that the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) has welcomed as necessary and beneficial. We recognise that the unprecedented circumstances meant many …
Universal Credit is the main means-tested benefit for those with low incomes, including both those not in paid work and those with low earnings. It is conditional on claimants accepting a ‘claimant commitment’ which is designed as an agreement between …
The social security system supports people in a wide range of circumstances but it is not always clear how effective this support is. This is partly because social security can be complex and different benefits try to do different things …