A SCHEME which helps lower-income Islanders to access healthcare could be expanded to around 1,300 more pensioners, if proposals from the social security minister are approved.
Deputy Lyndsay Feltham is calling for eligibility for the Pension Plus Scheme – which helps lower-income pensioners with the costs of optical, dental and chiropody treatment – to be widened, allowing pensioners with a small income tax liability to qualify for assistance.
Currently, the scheme is limited to pensioners who pay no income tax at all and have savings below £64,000, excluding the value of their home.
Under Deputy Feltham’s proposed changes to current legislation, pensioners who paid up to £1,000 in income tax in the previous year would become eligible.
Up to 1,300 pensioners would benefit from the expanded eligibility criteria, according to a report accompanying the proposition.
As well as gaining access to the Pension Plus Scheme, newly eligible pensioners would also qualify for the Health Access Scheme, which offers discounted GP visits.
Deputy Feltham said the proposals were being brought forward quickly to reflect commitments made in the Budget last month.
The report states that the changes are part of “government’s commitment to expand the healthcare support that is available to the island’s pensioners”.
Eligibility for the Pension Plus Scheme has previously been used to determine entitlement to the annual Christmas Bonus, but the means-testing rules for that benefit will not be changing.
This means that separate eligibility rules for the Pension Plus Scheme and the Christmas Bonus would therefore need be clarified in legislation, if the changes were approved.
The proposals form part of the ‘Supporting Islanders and Strengthening Communities’ project, which has an agreed budget of between £1.6 million and £1.8 million a year.
Of that, an estimated £625,000 annually would be needed to fund the expansion of the Pension Plus Scheme.
The Social Security Minister indicated that, if approved by the States Assembly, the updated rules would be launched by the end of March – allowing time for systems to be updated and for the changes to be communicated to pensioners.
