29 January 2026
The Minister for Social Security, Deputy Lyndsay Feltham, has today announced changes to
services and support for carers and people with care needs.
This follows a detailed review of Jersey’s benefit system, current services and support, as well
as discussions with carers’ organisations.
The Minister has committed to:
- Enabling Long-Term Care, LTC, payments to be made directly to individuals or families,
so they have the flexibility and choice to manage their own finances
- Changing how care packages are assessed so parts of the package can be paid directly
to the individual or to an informal carer on their behalf, to help meet specific costs for
the person receiving the care
- Ensuring carers know a weekly sum can be set aside from a care package to provide a
respite budget that will cover the cost of providing care while they take a complete
break from time to time
- A dedicated advisor to provide carers with individual advice and direct them to support
services that are available to them from 23 February
- A new dedicated page on the Government of Jersey website to bring together all
information on support for carers
- A Carers Connect Me event on 17 March to bring people together and share information
and resources.
The full findings of the review also considered calls for pensioner carers to be allowed to claim
the full Home Carers’ Allowance, HCA, and a pension at the same time.
Under Jersey’s social security system, Islanders can only claim one working age contributory
benefit at a time from the contributions they have paid and then receive an old-age pension
when they reach pension age.
Pension payments are based on the number of contributions an Islander has made through
their working life. Carers who do not have a full contribution record when they reach pension
age can choose to have their pension payments topped up to reach the level of the Home
Carers’ Allowance.
The Support for Unpaid Carers and People with Care Needs: Findings Report found that changing the system to enable Islanders to claim both the full HCA
benefit and a full pension on top of that would require a significant increase in funding. Such a
change would not benefit carers of working age, would not target financial support where it is
most needed, and is not the type of support that most carers have been asking for.
The review found that whilst there is already a good level of financial support available, there is
more that can be done in terms of practical support and the resources available to informal
carers.
The Minister for Social Security, Deputy Lyndsay Feltham said: “My aim continues to be building
a stronger, more connected system for Jersey. I hope this report helps bring clarity to the areas
we will be focusing on as we move forward. I remain committed to working closely with carers’
organisations and, most importantly, listening to carers themselves, so we can keep learning
and making sure support is reaching where it is needed the most."
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