Benefit, welfare and pay reductions (FOI)

​Request

It's very difficult to assess and find all in one place, so could you please provide a list of all cuts to  benefits, welfare and pay reductions that have been enacted to date since 2014.

Could you also provide all the States proposed cuts to benefits, welfare and pay reductions that are yet to come in.

• for benefits include Social Security and any other benefits provided to the public

• for welfare include any financial support given by the States of Jersey to those who are unemployed or otherwise in need

• for pay reductions I am referring to staff members employed by the States of Jersey as part of saving plans. An example would be as per the following article:

           Salary cuts for new teachers on the BBC website

Response

There were no cuts to benefits in 2014.

There have been some cuts to benefits in 2015 and 2016. These were agreed by the States as part of the Medium Term Financial Plan 2016 to 2019 and are already published and so Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey)Law 2011 has been applied.

The relevant information can be found on page seve at the following link:

Medium Term Financial Plan 2016 to 2019

Each change shown in the table is explained in detail in the report.

Please note that the report refers to closing the Christmas bonus in 2016. A means-tested Christmas bonus was subsequently re-introduced for 2016 onwards. Please see the following links:

Special payments (Christmas bonus) 2016/P.84

Special payments (Christmas bonus) 2016/P.85

There have been no pay reductions since 2014.

Exemption applied

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1)    Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.
(2)    A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.