Acting Chief Minister Ian Le Marquand said he and his fellow ministers had to ‘see what they could do’ after the average earnings index, which is used to set pension increases, revealed that earnings in Jersey rose at just 1.5 per cent last year – half that of the latest inflation figure of three per cent.
Traditionally the average earnings figure would be automatically applied to the old-age pension. However the Senator, who is standing in for Chief Minister Ian Gorst, Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf and Social Security Minister Francis Le Gresley while they are away, said the issue would be discussed when all ministers were back in the Island.
‘I think my senior colleagues and I will need to look and see where there is something we can do to assist the position of pensioners without tying ourselves into an ongoing commitment which is unaffordable,’ he said.
