On 15th July 2021, the Department for Work and Pensions announced that they plan to extend bereavement support to cohabiting couples with children. 

Dr. David Morrison, Practitioner Psychologist, has published an article in today’s Impartial Reporter urging victims of historical abuse to consider redress though civil courts and sharing Francis Hanna & Co’s new legal clinic to assist victims.

At Francis Hanna & Co, we have specialist solicitors dedicated to helping victims of child abuse pursue claims for compensation where the abuse has taken place in schools, care homes, the church or similar institutions. We have recently been successful in achieving a substantial settlement for a client who was a resident in the Kincora Boys home in the 1970s and who was subjected to significant physical, sexual and mental abuse during his time there.

Victims in Northern Ireland of the contaminated blood scandal have welcomed an announcement that payments made to them are being uplifted in line with those made to victims in England.

  We warmly welcome an announcement made by the Government in recent days that they intend to issue a Remedial Order to remove the incompatibilities from the legislation governing Widowed Parents Allowance and Bereavement Support Payment.

We previously wrote about a challenge to Universal Credit taken in England, which has the potential to bring about an important change in the way that the benefit is paid to those in work.

One of the most encouraging aspects of the Governments response to the pandemic has been how quickly measures have been put in place and laws have been passed in order to support people when they need it.

The Covid 19 pandemic has wide reaching implications and it is therefore throwing up a myriad of issues in our society, some of them fundamental and going to the very core of our humanity.

The issue of bereavement benefits has been the subject of a parliamentary discussion at Stormont this week. 

An open letter to the Prime Minister has been signed by 18 organisations urging immediate law reform on the eligibility of cohabiting parents for bereavement benefits. 

The High Court in England has released a judgement today which reaffirms that to refuse bereavement benefits to children based on their parents' marital status is unlawful discrimination which is “manifestly unjustified”.

Laura Banks was delighted to be invited to address Ulster University Law Students last week on Public Interest Litigation.

Suffering is heaped on bereaved children, concludes Commons Report as Government inaction on Supreme Court Judgement “risable”.

A very familiar face spotted in the Belfast Telegraph! Laura Banks discusses all things Supreme Court, Widowed Parents Allowance and the story of Siobhan McLaughlin, who captured the hearts and minds of local people.

A joint report on welfare from the Northern Ireland Home Affairs and Work and Pensions Committee has warned that tens of thousands of households in Northern Ireland could see their income drop by hundreds of pounds per month, unless urgent action is taken to extend the Social Security “mitigations package”.

Francis Hanna Solicitor Laura Banks was the first of 18 speakers to deliver a TED talk in Parliament Buildings, Stormont on 31st August. The theme of the event was “Imagine”. The speakers were invited to share their ideas and vision for a better society, in Northern Ireland and beyond.

Last year, our client Siobhan McLaughlin successfully challenged the Government’s decision to refuse her children bereavement benefits on grounds of her marital status in a landmark Supreme Court case.

Laura Banks, from Francis Hanna & Co solicitors has been invited to deliver a talk at TEDx Stormont talk on 31st August.

This week Siobhan McLaughlin’s case has received attention on 2 separate occasions.

Laura Banks has been shortlisted as a finalist for the Employee of the Year award at this year’s Belfast Business Awards.