BUDGET money originally earmarked for disability and inclusion initiatives will now be used to support the Jersey Employment Trust, the Social Security Minister has confirmed – as a petition calling for the government to reverse its controversial decision on funding for the charity surged past 5,000 signatures.
Deputy Lyndsay Feltham confirmed the arrangement in a rare statement issued on Sunday afternoon, following days of public pressure after JET said that its 38 staff were at risk as a result of a government decision not to repeat a top-up grant of £785,000 which had kept it afloat in 2025.
In response, the JET board, via a statement, said that it was still working with the minister to find a “sustainable, long-term funding solution”.
In her statement, Deputy Feltham stressed that she had “not cut base funding to JET”, which stands at £1.9m.
She explained that the previous top-up was possible “due to underspends” her department had achieved, which were able to be reallocated.
“I made it clear to JET that it was just fortuitous that I was able to offer this, and that we could not guarantee it on further occasions, because underspends will always vary,” the minister said.
Deputy Feltham said she had subsequently tried to create a new contract for JET, but that talks collapsed in large part because the JET Board did not come to an agreement with us to share data”. Such data would have allowed them to create a business case for further funding, she said.
While she said that, this year, she does “not have the flexibility with underspends that I was able to enjoy last year”, the minister explained that her department’s chief officer had “worked extremely hard to find anything we could offer, and we have been able to provide a top-up grant of £200,000, plus an RPI uplift on their baseline funding”. This funding was paid in December.
She continued: “Within this year’s Budget, I also secured more funding for disability and inclusion initiatives and my intention was to use that money to make meaningful progress on the delivery of priority areas agreed by the Disability and Inclusion Advisory Group.”
While “it had not been the intention to use this money for an additional top-up for JET”, she said that these funds would now be used as “stabilisation money” that will go towards creating a business case “for a sustainable future funding model”.
The JET board said: “The board has noted the Social Security Minister’s statement and has sought further clarification on a number of points raised, including the reference to ‘stabilisation funding’.
In the meantime, the Board wishes to make clear that it continues to support the minister and her department in identifying a sustainable, long-term funding solution. As part of this co-operative approach, the organisation has shared, on an ongoing basis for a number of years, all information and statistical data it is legally permitted to provide regarding the clients it supports. Current data protection legislation prevents the sharing of clients’ personal data, a position of which the department is fully aware.”
Petitions that attract 5,000 or more are considered for an in-committee debate in the States Assembly.
