ESS has also proposed increasing the offsets for accommodation and food from 1 January. Go to www.guernseypress.com/gponline to subscribe to our discounted online edition.

Employment & Social Security wanted permission to investigate whether elderly people could be forced to take out 'property loans' to pay for their care in residential homes. The States’ is committed to equalise the adult rate and young person’s rate and to raise the minimum wage to 60% of median earnings by 2023. The final vote on the policy letter was 29 votes in favour, and Deputy David De Lisle was the sole vote against. If the minimum wage was set at 60% of median earnings, it would be £9.67. In a letter the Policy & Resources committee noted the ‘substantial increase’ in the benefit limitation, and raised a question mark over whether it could be funded. The adult rate in Jersey is £8.02 and in the UK £8.21 for those aged 25 and over. Contributions would need to rise by 1% for it to have a positive balance in 2065.

‘We, by a majority, suppressed their voice and right to speak.’. The offset where accommodation is provided by an employer will rise from £78 per week to £82.

Read the Guernsey Press in full from your laptop, PC or mobile, wherever you are in the world. Where both accommodation and food are provided, the offset will increase from £109 per week to £114. The challenge facing ESS is that islanders are living longer and with more complex needs, and the States long-term care fund is predicted to be wiped out by 2040. The challenge facing ESS is that islanders are living longer and with more complex needs, and the States long-term care fund is predicted to be wiped out by 2040. When you first sign in you will be asked to create a profile. Read the opinion column on Page 14 of today's Guernsey Press. 'Employment & Social Security clearly dislike the concept of people benefiting from inherited wealth from older relatives.'. Go to www.guernseypress.com/gponline to subscribe to our discounted online edition. 'A change is required or else the scheme will fail before the majority of those currently contributing are likely to benefit and the States will have to pick up the bill at that point.'. During targeted consultation with employer groups, feedback was generally positive but concerns were raised that equalising the young person's rate would disincentive employers from taking on inexperienced people. Go to www.guernseypress.com/gponline to subscribe to our discounted online edition. It is expected that the new minimum wage rates will be debated at the States meeting on 25 September. Once created you can update the profile as needed and it will remain in the system for you to use for future applications. ESS has also proposed increasing the offsets for accommodation and food from 1 January. In contrast, the vice president of ESS, Deputy Shane Langlois, said the current system was flawed and the cracks were getting larger. 'Following States approval of the medium term plan for the minimum wage last year, we propose the next step for 2020,' said ESS president Michelle Le Clerc. The current system is not means-tested and the proposal was that pensioners who are cash poor but asset rich should make a greater contribution. ‘At the moment, parents are being forced to decide whether they feed their children or pay their rent, and we wonder why rent arrears are on the increase.’. Fellow ESS member Deputy John Gollop said on Twitter that Deputy McSwiggan’s move was a ‘procedural brainwave which effectively guillotines and filibusters right of centre criticism of benefit limits and the populist view of welfare’.
Deputy Rob Prow said it was disingenuous to penalise homeowners, who had worked hard and acted prudently.

She said most families currently restricted by the benefits cap were hard-working families on low wages. ‘The great majority of families have earnings or benefits of other kinds, income support is topping up these other sources of income, up to the limit set by the States, and I ask States members to take note that 97 of the 130 households currently capped by the benefit limitation have at least one working parent.’. It wants the rate set at £8.50 from January. The UK Government wants to move to the National Living Wage rate of £9 per hour by 2020. Committee president Deputy Michelle Le Clerc urged States members to address the looming crisis before it was too late because a collapse of care homes would put tremendous pressure on the health service. Some 130 families with more than 470 children have been identified by ESS staff as affected by the benefits cap, and are said to be living in ‘intolerable poverty’. THE POLITICIAN in charge of Guernsey’s welfare system has said she wants to dispel a number of myths about benefits. 'I will be voting for all the propositions, taken as a whole they are at least a step in the right direction, and more importantly they address the stability crisis in our increasingly vital care home sector.'. GOV.GG. ‘We have to battle endlessly against a misconception that we’re paying £750 per week to lots of families, but in fact it is very rare. The current system is not means-tested and the proposal was that pensioners who are cash poor but asset rich should make a greater contribution.

ESS committee member Deputy Emilie McSwiggan proposed a guillotine motion to cut debate and get straight to the vote, and she was successful by 15 votes to 14. 'We try to encourage people to work hard, to pay taxes, to take on mortgages, to build assets over time because that helps the society as a whole.'. However, in the prior Budget debate the Assembly found a funding source through a significant increase in commercial property rates. We see this as a positive step, assisting with the reduction of in-work poverty and ensuring that workers in low earning sectors are not exploited.'. Read more here: https://bit.ly/2Zu9jN5 ‘The committee has said repeatedly throughout this political term that contribution rates will need to increase. Read the Guernsey Press in full from your laptop, PC or mobile, wherever you are in the world. This sets the maximum amount that an employer can deduct from a person’s wages for the provision of accommodation and meals as part of their employment. ESS’s report says that the fund from which the pension is paid would be exhausted by 2040 under the current policy if there was no change to contribution rates. Deputy Le Clerc also tried to bust a fallacy that living on benefits was a comfortable lifestyle. Login.

Information and public services for the Island of Guernsey. Email address Password. The young person’s rate, which applies to 16 and 17 year olds, will increase by 55p to £8.05 per hour. ESS committee member Deputy Emilie McSwiggan proposed a guillotine motion to cut debate and get straight to the vote, and she was successful by 15 votes to 14. THE adult minimum wage will rise by 40p an hour next year, if proposals by Employment & Social Security are approved. ESS have published their proposals for a secondary pension scheme to add to the basic States pension. Under the suggested overhaul pensioners with assets, including property, above £350,000 would have had to meet the first £35,000 of their care. Register | Forgotten password Login. This sets the maximum amount that an employer can deduct from a person’s wages for the provision of accommodation and meals as part of their employment. For Deputy Carl Meerveld the proposal represented a form of inheritance tax which would erode the principles the island was based on.

The final vote on the policy letter was 29 votes in favour, and Deputy David De Lisle was the sole vote against. It came up during the debate on a policy letter that included the proposal to increase the benefits cap on households from £750 to £850 a week. The offset where accommodation is provided by an employer will rise from £78 per week to £82. Earlier, Deputy David De Lisle had pointed out that this amounted to £44,200 a year, which was more than the island’s average salary, and nearly double the benefits cap in London.
After four days of debating the Budget, the ESS policy letter came round late on Friday evening. Deputy Michelle Le Clerc, the president of Employment & Social Security, told the States Assembly that the majority of the poorest families in receipt of benefits have at least one working family member. 'I find it very sad when you speak to people who have worked hard to pay for their own homes, they're almost in tears when they're talking to you, they're saying "my next door neighbour hasn't done a day's work in their life, they haven't contributed to pay for the system and they will get everything for nothing".'. New user? However, by a small majority of 19 votes to 17, States members threw out that idea. The basic residential care benefit will increase to £521 per week, and people with more complex needs will be entitled to £1,170 per week. Deputy Barry Paint had questioned whether the benefits cap was too generous and whether the best way for people to escape long-term poverty was to get a job. Read the Guernsey Press in full from your laptop, PC or mobile, wherever you are in the world. In setting out her committee’s policy letter, Deputy Le Clerc wanted to set the matter straight. Deputies piled in to criticise what they saw as a raid on homes, with frequent use of the words 'inequitable' and 'unfair'. You can apply for all States of Guernsey vacancies via our online recruitment system. Where both accommodation and food are provided, …