Income Support (Transitional Provisions) (Jersey) Order 2008 - Amendment

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A decision made (01/09/08) to amend the Income Support (Transitional Provisions) (Jersey) Order 2008

Decision Reference: MD-S-2008-0051
Decision Summary Title :	DS - Income Support (Transitional Provisions) (Jersey) Order 2008 - amendment		Date of Decision Summary:	29 August 2008
Decision Summary Author:	Sue Duhamel Policy and Strategy Director		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt? (State clauses from Code of Practice booklet)	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:
Written Report Title :	Income Support (Transitional Provisions) (Jersey) Order 2008 - amendment		Date of Written Report:	29 August 2008
Written Report Author:	Sue Duhamel Policy and Strategy Director		Written Report : Public or Exempt? (State clauses from Code of Practice booklet)	Public
Subject: Income Support (Transitional Provisions) (Jersey) Order 2008
Decision(s): The Minister decided to amend the Income Support (Transitional Provisions) (Jersey) Order 2008 to:-  extend the transitional period for all households until 28th January 2009. This will be further extended to 30th September, 2009 subject to States approval of the amendment to the Annual Business Plan to be lodged by the Council of Ministers.  Provide additional protection to those households previously receiving Attendance Allowance, Adult Disability Allowance or Child Disability Allowance, by maintaining 100% transition until 30th September 2010 and then to make 20% reductions on an annual basis and accordingly requested the Law Draftsman to prepare the necessary draft legislation.
Reason(s) for Decision: The initial transition phasing was based on estimates prepared before the introduction of Income Support. Following the analysis of costings for the first few months of operation, it has been shown that the budget provided for transition is sufficient to extend 100% protection until January 2009. It is also possible, within this budget, to provide additional protection for families including someone with a disability. Whilst these families would not be considered to be in need of financial support in Income Support terms, some of them rely on the value of the disability benefit to assist with the cost of existing financial commitments. Households that include someone with a disability have become accustomed to the level of benefit under the previous system and may find it more difficult than other households to adapt to new benefits. The further extension of 100% protection for all households is included as one of a number of proposals designed to mitigate the impact of the unusual rise in local food and fuel prices for lower income households included in an amendment to the Annual Business Plan to be lodged by the Council of Ministers
Resource Implications: There are no manpower implications. The cost of extending transition to January 2009 and extending transition for families including someone with a disability is included within existing budgets. The cost of the additional period of transition (to 30 September 2009) is £2.17m in 2009 with additional costs in future years.
Action required: Instruct the Law Draftsman to amend the Income Support (Transitional Provisions) (Jersey) Order 2008.
Signature:		Position:
Date Signed:		Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):

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Income Support (Transitional Provisions) (Jersey) Order 2008 - Amendment

Transitional Order

Income Support (Transitional Provisions) (Jersey) Order 2008 R&O-013-2008 Amended By R&O -038-2008

The transitional order sets put the timetable for reduction in protected payments.

There are two changes that need to be made.

1. On 3 June 2008 the Minister made a statement setting out, inter alia, a more generous transition period for those households including someone with high personal care needs.

“STATEMENT TO BE MADE BY THE MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

ON 3rd JUNE 2008

Income Support and Transition Process - Progress Report

I am today making available to Members a progress report on the first months of Income Support and also announcing some enhancements to the Income Support System and the extension of the protected benefit payments.

…

Due to the gradual build up of new Income Support claims during 2008, it is possible to transfer additional funds to the funding of protected payments to allow households previously receiving Attendance Allowance, Adult Disability Allowance or Child Disability Allowance, to continue to receive full protection.

I am announcing today that this protection will be for a further two years up until October 2010. Only then will the first partial reduction in protected benefit occur.”

2. In that statement the Minister also announced an extension of the period before phased reductions commence, from 30 September 2008 to 28 January 2009. Since then, the Council of Ministers has proposed that this be extended further to 30 September 2009.

These two changes require amendments to Article 6 and the Schedule of the Transition order.

Article 6 contains an ordered list of household types by which transition type is determined. The households with Attendance Allowance, Adult Disability Allowance or Child Disability Allowance will need to be inserted at the beginning of the article, as this household attribute takes precedence over the other options.

It will apply to any household that satisfies the condition that a member of a household was eligible for attendance allowance, disabled adult’s allowance or disabled child’s allowance immediately before the appointed day and had claimed any such allowance.

References to these predecessor benefits in the current paragraph 5 will need to be removed, leaving those over 65 and previous recipients of Disabled Transport Allowance in this paragraph.

The transition phasing will be by 20% per year, starting in October 2010.

The schedule will need to refer to an additional column in the table.

Period

new.

Percentage payable under Article 5(x)

From

1st October 2009 to 30th September 2010

100

From

1st October 2010 to 30th September 2011

From

1st October 2011 to 30th September 2012

From

1st October 2012 to 30th September 2013

From

1st October 2013 to 30th September 2014

The other change is to amend references made to the date 1st October 2008. If the proposal from the COM is approved this will change to 1st October 2009. If the proposal is not approved, this will change to 28th January 2009.