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A decision made on 21 December 2020

Decision Reference: MD-S-2020-0092
Decision Summary Title :	DS – Income Support – Covid 19 – Update to Temporary Scheme (STIA)		Date of Decision Summary:	21/12/2020
Decision Summary Author:	Senior Policy Officer		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title :	WR – Income Support – Covid 19 – Update to Temporary Scheme (STIA)		Date of Written Report:	21/12/2020
Written Report Author:	Senior Policy Officer		Written Report: Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: Update of Income Support Temporary Application Scheme for Short Term Incapacity Allowance (STIA)
Decision(s): The Minister has decided to update the Temporary Application Scheme for STIA – this follows revised public health advice. The Minister has decided to increase the maximum number of days of STIA equivalent payments that can be made using Income Support exceptional payments from 21 to 24 days. The update to the scheme takes effect from 8th December 2020. The Covid-19 sickness (Isolation) Benefit scheme rules have already been updated to reflect this increase in days. The Temporary Income Support Scheme was setup by Ministerial Delegation earlier this year.
Reason(s) for Decision: On 23rd March 2020 the Minister signed MD-S-2020-0017. This delegated the power to make exceptional payments available under Article 8(2) of the Income Support (Jersey) Law 2007, to Determining Officers appointed under that Law. These delegations have been extended twice by MD-S-2020-0036 and 0060, they are currently set to expire at the end of March 2021. As part of the initial MD, the Minister established a temporary scheme which allowed exceptional payments of Income Support up to the maximum value of 14 days of STIA to be made, under ministerial guidance, to people who would not normally qualify for STIA. Following updated advice in relation to household isolation (issued by the Medical Officer of Health) the Minister signed MD-S-2020-0027 which, effective from the 28th March, increased the maximum number of days of STIA equivalent payment from 14 to 21 days. Changes to the covid-19 testing regime now mean that a person could test positive when tested on day 10 of their self-isolation and then have to isolate for a further 14 days. Therefore, in order to align with these changes, the number of days of income support payable under this temporary scheme is being increased from 21 to 24 days.
Resource Implications: There are no additional manpower or resource implications to the variations being applied. The cost of the Covid-19 sickness benefit is met by the Social Security Fund and the Customer and Local Services budget allocated to Income Support.
Action required: Senior Policy Officer to advise CLS Group Director of Customer Operations that the Ministerial Decision confirming these changes has been signed.
Signature: Deputy J A Martin		Position: Minister for Social Security
Date Signed:		Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):

Covid-19 Income Support Temporary Application Scheme for Short Term Incapacity Allowance: Update

Ministerial Decision Report

Income Support – Covid 19 – Update to Temporary Scheme (STIA)

Background

In February, the Minister for Social Security established a temporary scheme - Covid Sickness (Isolation) Benefit, this scheme supports public health advice by enabling people to claim an amount equivalent to Short Term Incapacity Allowance (STIA) if they are required to self-isolate because they are at risk of transmitting coronavirus. The benefit is available to various categories of people and there are rules around who can and can’t claim it. More detail on this benefit can be found on www.gov.je [1].

To support this scheme, the Minister decided to delegate the ability to make decisions under Article 8(2) of the Income Support (Jersey) Law 2007 to Determining Officers appointed under that law.

Determining Officers currently have the power to make exceptional payments of Income Support to a household which would not normally be entitled to STIA because they have not supplied all of the written proofs required by the legislation.

These delegations were originally made for a period of 3 months on March 23rd 2020 by MD-S-2020-0017, they were extended by a further 3 months on the 23rd June by MD-S-2020-0036 and extended once again on the 24th September by MD-S-2020-0060. The delegations are currently due to expire on 31st March 2021.

Temporary application scheme for STIA following Government advice to self-isolate

Currently, under the rules agreed by Minister and applied to the exceptional payments delegation, a Determining Officer is allowed to make an exceptional payment of Income Support up to the maximum value of 21 days of STIA. Payments are made, under ministerial guidance, to people who would not normally qualify for the benefit.

Note: Following updated advice in relation to household isolation, issued by the Medical Officer of Health, the maximum number of days of STIA equivalent payment was increased from 14 to 21 days earlier this year. This change became effective from: 28th March 2020 following the Minister signing MD-S-2020-0027 on the 13th May 2020.

Further changes to the temporary scheme – 21 to 24 days

Following the implementation of an updated covid-19 testing regime, particularly in relation to people travelling into the Island [2], public health have citied an issue that a person that is in self-isolation following public health advice could test positive at their day 10 test and then be required to isolate for a further 14 days. This would mean that they would be in isolation for 24 days in total.

In order to align with this updated regime and following guidance from public health, the Minister has decided to update the temporary scheme and increase the maximum value of days that can be paid for by an Income Support exceptional payment from 21 to 24 days.

This update to the temporary scheme will take effect from 8th December 2020. The Covid Sickness (Isolation Benefit) scheme rules have already been updated to reflect this change.

Note: For avoidance of doubt, there are no other implications to any existing delegations, other than the minor change in the number of days payment that can be made (21 – 24 days). Moreover, the delegations described earlier in this report are separate to the delegations made by MD-S-2020-0054 (signed 18th September 2020).

[1] https://www.gov.je/Health/Coronavirus/BusinessAndEmployment/Pages/IsolationBenefit.aspx

[2] https://www.gov.je/health/coronavirus/travel/pages/coronavirustraveladvice.aspx