- States vote to make income support rules stricter for parents with nursery-age children
- Mothers and fathers will have to look for work to continue receiving payments
- Social Security Minister Susie Pinel describes move as ‘common sense’
- Are rules regarding income support payments too strict? Take our poll below
PARENTS on income support will have to start looking for work once their child becomes eligible for free government-funded nursery care after the States voted in favour of a package of changes to the existing regulations on Tuesday.
Social Security Minister Susie Pinel, who brought the proposition to the States, said the move represented ‘nothing more than common sense’.
The Assembly voted 33 to seven in favour of an amendment to force parents on income support to start looking for work a year earlier than they are currently required to.
Under existing legislation parents with little or no income who have a child up to five years old can claim benefits without any requirement to seek work.
But parents are eligible to receive 20 hours’ free child care during term times under the conditions of the Nursery Education Fund starting in the school year when their child turns four. It is at this point, under the new legislation, that parents will have to start to seek work.
And Members also voted in favour of sanctions for parents who do not engage with the Back to Work team, meaning they could have their benefits cut or reduced for up to six weeks.
St Helier Deputy Geoff Southern and St John Deputy Tracey Vallois raised concerns about the legislation and questioned whether it was a ‘money-making exercise’ for the States.
Deputy Southern added that he believed the sanctions were a ‘big stick’ being brandished by the States against the Island’s poorest and he urged Members not to vote in favour.
But Deputy Pinel, who stressed that parents of disabled or sick children would not be forced to seek work, moved to allay their fears and stressed that the purpose of the amendment was to encourage parents back into work as soon as possible and not make money.
‘It seems unreasonable to offer income support when they are receiving 20 hours’ free child care a week,’ she said.
The States also voted in favour of increasing the hourly rates that income support can pay towards the cost of child care by 3.3 per cent.
The Members who voted against changing the legislation regarding when parents have to seek work were: Senator Zoe Cameron, Deputies Geoff Southern, Jeremy Maçon, Louise Doublet, Russell Labey, Sam Mézec and Kevin Lewis.
The improving economic climate and the success of the ‘Back To Work’ initiatives over the last 3 years have provided the Department with the opportunity to enhance the support available to parents under the Income Support scheme and to co-ordinate the rules for parents more closely with current nursery provision available through the Education, Sport and Culture Department (ESC).
A set of 3 separate amendments to the Income Support legislation combine to provide the following changes:
- the alignment of the beginning of job-seeking activities for parents and the start of nursery education for the child
- an increase in the rate of funding for child care paid through Income Support
- a broader definition of child care that can be supported through Income Support
- flexibility in actively seeking work responsibilities to allow both parents to share the care of a young child.
