Value of income support and pension plus for 2015-2025

​Request ​813203778

Please confirm the value of INCOME SUPPORT & PENSION PLUS for the years 2015 to 2025 inclusive. 

Response

The Employment, Social Security and Housing (ESSH) Department routinely publishes data on its benefits and services. Historically this was provided in the Social Security Departments Ministers report. This was discontinued in 2017 and replaced with the States of Jersey Annual Report and Accounts published by Treasury and Exchequer (T&E).

Below is the summary of Income Support and Pension Plus spend requested: 

​*Income Support Spend totals collated from ESSH publish data (up to 2017) and T&E Published Data (2018 onwards)

**Pension Plus totals collated from ESSH Published data and ESSH internal data as T&E States of Jersey Annual Report and Accounts does not include this level of detail.

The States of Jersey Annual Report and Accounts is an annual report, and it is anticipated that the report for 2025 shall be published in/before May 2026. Therefore, ESSH department is applying Article 36 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 - 'Information intended for future publication' exemption anticipating that this benefit spend shall be reported by T&E within the next 12 weeks.

ESSH department publishes benefit and service information on:

• ESSH Performance Statistics page (Gov.Je): https://www.gov.je/Government/Departments/EmploymentSocialSecurityHousi ng/pages/esshstatistics.aspx

• The government OpenData platform: https://opendata.gov.je/

Summary Information on total benefit spend is available on the links below. A page reference and table of values have been provided for your convenience.

Social Security Ministers Report 

2015 – pg.7

https://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government%20and%20administration/Social%20Security%20Department%20Minister%27s%20Report%202015.pdf

2016 – pg.7

https://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government%20and%20administration/ R%20Social%20Security%20Department%20Minister%27s%20Report%202016%20201 70720%20ET%20v1.pdf

2017 – Pg.7

https://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government%20and%20administration/S ocial%20Security%20Department's%20Minister%20Report%202017.pdf

States of Jersey Annual Report and Accounts 

2018 – pg.80, pg.231

https://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government%20and%20administration/2 0190425%20R%20States%20of%20Jersey%20Annual%20Report%20and%20Accounts

%202018.pdf

2019 – (total spend for these items was not published in this report) 

https://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government%20and%20administration/R%20Government%20of%20Jersey%20Annual%20Report%20and%20Accounts%202019. pdf

2020 – pg.282

https://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government%20and%20administration/ R%20Government%20of%20Jersey%20Annual%20Report%20and%20Accounts%2020

20. pdf

2021 – pg.334

https://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government%20and%20administration/ R%20States%20of%20Jersey%202021%20Annual%20Report%20and%20Accounts.pdf

2022 – pg.

256 https://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government%20and%20administrat ion/R%20States%20of%20Jersey%20Group%202022%20Annual%20Report%20and%2 0Accounts.pdf

2023 –

pg.229 https://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government%20and%20administ ration/States%20of%20Jersey%20Group%202023%20Annual%20Report%20and%20A ccounts.pdf

2024 –

pg.191 https://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government%20and%20administ ration/States%20of%20Jersey%20Group%202024%20Annual%20Report%20and%20A ccounts.pdf

2025 – Yet to be published. 

Article applied

Article 36 - Information intended for future publication 

(1) Information is qualified exempt information if, at the time when the request for the information is made, the information is being held by a public authority with a view to its being published within 12 weeks of the date of the request.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant –

(a) of the date when the information will be published;

(b) of the manner in which it will be published; and

(c) by whom it will be published.

(3) In this Article, “published" means published –

(a) by a public authority; or

(b) by any other person. 

Public Interest Test 

Article 36 is a qualified exemption, which means that a public interest test has to be undertaken to examine the circumstances of the case and decide whether, on balance, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure

• disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public.

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information 

• ​It is intended to publish the relevant figures for 2025 in/before May 2026 on https://www.gov.je/Government/PlanningPerformance/BudgetAccounts/pages/states ofjerseyaccounts.aspx which is within 12 weeks of the receipt of this request. It is reasonable for government to publish reports in an orderly manner, following completion of appropriate internal processes, and publishing in advance, and in such close proximity to the expected publication date, would potentially undermine the orderly publication and conduct of government work (when the public benefit of earlier publication under the Law would derive limited benefit).