In 2015 politicians voted 32 to 12 against an amendment from Deputy Sam Mézec which would have retained the extra £40 a week provided by the benefit to single parents, rather than cut it as the Council of Ministers had proposed.
The Health and Social Security Scrutiny panel, chaired by Deputy Richard Renouf, successfully argued for that decision to be reversed, at an estimated cost of £2.3 million per year. The move was supported by 24 votes to 21, despite opposition from the Council of Ministers.
Deputy Renouf said: ‘There is a depth of in-work poverty in our Island that has perhaps not been seen for decades and there has been a shift in that from pensioners to families. They [single parents] struggle more than other groups and they have the desperate need so we are suggesting let’s return to them what this Assembly said they should have.’
He also cited evidence, which showed that 56 per cent of single parents were living in relative low income and suggested that the minister has not been ‘transparent’ with this information when initially proposing to remove the benefit.
St Clement Constable Len Norman said that the Assembly had made a wrong decision in 2015 while Deputy Southern argued that by restoring the payment, the Island’s most vulnerable young people would benefit.
However, Deputy Pinel said reinstating the single parent component would be a ‘retrograde step’ and that the panel had failed to fully understand the income support system.
She added that she was ‘disappointed’ that the panel had not sought to speak to members of her department before bringing the proposition.
‘The panel has failed to take into account the families with two parents that also fall below the relative low income threshold,’ she added. ‘I don’t believe it is fair to offer extra help only to single parents.’
