Income Support

Jersey has a new centralised income support scheme, but a letter in the JEP highlighted that people are having problems with it. A letter relating to this was in the paper yesterday (details below).

I wonder if any survey of any kind is planned to see how people are coping with the new income support scheme. This is one of several anecdotal cases of people writing to the JEP from having problems with income support.

It is not clear to me what mechanisms are in place for assessing feedback in relation to the scheme, and addressing any deficiencies; after all, it is unlikely that any brand new scheme of legislation will be perfect from the start. Lack of complaints do not necessarily mean the scheme is working well, but may just mean that people imagine that their concerns may be ignored and dismissed.

I notice from the Minutes of the Scrutiny sub-committe that they are looking at a "call for evidence" which may well address this issue "once the system has bedded in". That is mentioned in the January Minutes. Now that we are in March, and GST is only one month away, is there any definite scale for that or plans for how it is to be implemented? We shall see.

http://www.scrutiny.gov.je/minutes.asp?panelid=32
http://www.scrutiny.gov.je/view_doc.asp?doc=documents/minutes/S-27356-37939-632008.pdf&panelid=32&reviewid=0&target=min

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Income Support system is not doing its job

From Peter Marriott.

80 Journeaux Court,
St Helier.

I AM prompted to write this letter because it affects not only my wife and myself, but also all elderly disabled or semi-disabled persons, of whom there are many who, for various reasons, cannot use the bus.
We are 70 and 77 years old respectively and many people like us find it difficult getting on to a bus or getting to a convenient collection point, so we have to use our own cars.
We were able to maintain our limited independence with the help of the transport allowance, but that has now been removed, thereby depriving us and restricting our everyday activities which we previously enjoyed.
Other readers' comments would make the authorities reconsider, perhaps. As I see it, all the new Income Support scheme has achieved is to further humiliate the very people who need it most.

Published 26/3/2008