Income Support dental payments (FOI)

Request

As an individual in receipt of income support, I am entitled to a dental grant of £500 to put towards the cost of dental treatment.

This £500 can be spent in part or up to that limit of £500, once every two years.

So, if the amount is spent, the claimant has to wait two years before that £500 is available again. Excess dental costs are met by the claimant who can apply for an interest free loan from the States of Jersey.

My question is this: When was the £500 limit set and when is the amount reviewed, if at all?

Response

Special payments are one-off payments to help cover the costs of emergencies. They can be used to pay for a service (such as dental treatment) or an item (such as a replacement cooker). Special payments may be given as loans or grants.

The special payment £500 limit for a dental grant is a policy decision of the Minister for Social Security made on 17 February 2012 when this was incorporated into a revised version of the Income Support Policy Guidelines. This Ministerial decision can be found at the link below:

Income Support: Policy Guidelines: Dental Expenses and Flooring

The content of the Income Support Policy Guidelines is periodically reviewed and each revised version approved by the Minister. The current version of the Guidelines can be found at the link below. The section relating to special payments for dental costs is at paragraph 7.8:

Income Support Policy Guidelines

The Guideline was last reviewed in October 2017 and approved by the Minister in a Ministerial decision of 1 December 2017. This Ministerial decision can be found at the link below;

Income Support Policy Guidelines (Version 4.5)