Overpayment of benefits (FOI)

​Request

In the past five years:

A

How many instances have there been of Jersey's Social Security department overpaying Islanders benefits?

B

How much money was overpaid?

C

How much money has been repaid by islanders?

D

How much money is outstanding?

E

How long do islanders have to repay any money they were overpaid?

Response

The Social Security department administers over 20 different individual benefits and allowances.

A to D

It is not possible to answer questions A to D as this analysis would exceed the 12.5 hour permitted timeframe for answering Freedom of Information requests. Article 16 (Cost excessive) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

E

There is no specific time limit given in which customers are expected to repay money. It is dependent on the amount owed and the customers means.

Article and regulation applied

Article 16 A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.