The proposal by the Housing Committee survived a reference back attempt from Deputy Geoff Southern and was passed by 33 votes to one.
Housing say that 100 to 140 more households could earn their housing qualifications through the change.
Proposer Deputy Jerry Dorey said that qualifications had been going down every year since 2001.
There was no conflict, he said, between the committee’s proposals and the soon-to-be-debated immigration policy.
He added that there had not been a reduction in 16 months and that it was the committee’s eventual intention to reduce the qualifying period much further.
Deputy Southern asked for a reference back, saying that his shadow scrutiny panel were scheduled to finish their review of the immigration policy proposals in a fortnight.
The Deputy said that it would be better to put off the debate until after that report had been seen, but after a half-hour debate Members voted by 22 votes to 11 to continue with the main issue.
