SOCIAL security funds are not a “convenient piggy bank” for the government to “draw at will”, a former Bailiff has said in his amendment to minister’s spending plans.
The Government Plan, which will be debated by the Assembly in December, proposes transferring money between its current account and funds which are ring-fenced to pay the state pension to Islanders.
In essence, this means taking £40 million from social security reserves over the next two years and repaying it back in 2027.
But Deputy Sir Philip Bailhache, a former Bailiff and Attorney General, has said that this is an attempt by ministers to balance its books by dipping into reserves which do not belong to them.
This week, he has lodged the first amendment to the Government Plan 2024-2027, calling for ministers to take money from its Strategic Reserve – the ‘rainy day fund’ – rather than social security funds.
He said: “This amendment is brought to defend an important principle. The principle is that the monies in the Social Security Fund and the Social Security (Reserve) Fund belong to the Island’s pensioners and prospective pensioners, or to the people of Jersey.
“They do not belong to the States or to the government. They should not be used as a convenient pot into which the government can dip to borrow with a view to balancing the government’s books.”
Every earning Islander contributes to the Social Security Fund, which is topped up by the States, so that everyone gets the pension they are entitled to. This is based on a formula defined in law.
In his amendment, Deputy Bailhache quotes ministers from a debate earlier this year, when he said they gave “clear assurances” that the full supplementation would be paid into the Social Security Fund in 2024.
He concluded: “What a shame that ministers, so soon after the solemn assurances…given to get the draft regulations through the States in February 2023, should have discovered that they are not yet weaned off the plundering of social security funds after all.
“It is time that the government finally acknowledged that social security funds are not a convenient piggy bank upon which it can draw at will.”
