Deputy Geoff Southern of Reform Jersey is a long-time political opponent of the minister, Deputy Susie Pinel, and has repeatedly called for her resignation over a number of issues.
And now following the release of new figures that show that the poorest 20 per cent of Islanders have become poorer over the last five years, he has stepped up his campaign against her.
The figures showed that Jersey’s lowest-earning households have seen their income decline by 17 per cent.
At the same time inflation has risen by 13 per cent, meaning Jersey’s poorest residents are 30 per cent worse off overall.
Deputy Southern said that this was the ‘evidence needed’ that the Council of Ministers, and particularly Deputy Pinel, need to be voted out of power.
He said that she was specifically to blame because she had put together the programme of benefits cuts recently approved by the States Assembly as part of the Medium Term Financial Plan.
The Deputy said that the St Clement district represented by Deputy Pinel would therefore be especially targeted.
‘We need to remove this current Council of Ministers from power and preferably from the States and this will be particularly in St Clement,’ he said.
‘The Social Security Minister is responsible for taking the reckless and irresponsible decisions over welfare, and did so deliberately without evidence.
‘If the evidence had been presented to the Members of the States then the cuts would not have happened.’
He added: ‘We will be canvassing around St Clement.
‘We need to make sure that voters are registered for the 2018 election and leaflets will be a starting point.
‘For those whose lives have been damaged we need to make sure that they use the one weapon that they have – their vote.’
Deputy Southern added that ministers should have waited for the publication of the Jersey Household Income Distribution report, which last week revealed the gap between Jersey’s rich and poor, before making any changes to welfare.
‘The Council of Ministers is not to blame for the global recession but the widening gap between the rich and the poor in Jersey is their fault,’ he said.
‘There can be no doubt that this Chief Minister is to blame as it happened on his watch.’
‘They could have quite easily waited for the evidence.
‘The worse off have been the most significantly affected over the last five years, and they will be most damaged by the cuts.’
It was recently announced at a Reform Jersey meeting that the party plans to begin its campaign for the 2018 general election immediately as it hopes to remove the Council of Ministers from power.
Actively Seeking Work
The Social Security Department compiles and administers data on people registered as Actively Seeking Work in Jersey. The States of Jersey Statistics Unit independently analyses this anonymised data and publishes monthly reports of the figures.
On 31 December 2014:
- on a seasonally adjusted basis, the total number of people registered as actively seeking work (ASW) in Jersey was at the same level as the previous month (November 2014) and 30 lower than the average (mean) for the preceding three months
- the seasonally adjusted ASW total remained at the lowest level for more than three years, since September 2011
- the non-seasonally adjusted ASW total was 1,440; this total is 10 lower than the previous month (November 2014)
- long-term ASW (registered for more than twelve months) accounted for around one in seven (15%) of total ASW and was the lowest number recorded for more than three and a half years
- 200 teenagers (aged 16 to 19 years) were registered as ASW, 20 fewer than the previous month (November 2014) and 70 fewer than twelve months earlier (December 2013)[/breakout]
