3 days ago
Jersey income support changes could benefit family claims
A minister hopes to give young people in Jersey more incentive to work by making sure their earnings do not affect their families' income support Security minister Lyndsey Feltham has proposed a series of changes to the income support law to ensure families with working children at home were "better off".If approved, the changes would mean that if anyone's child was working but living in the claimant's house, money the child made would not count towards income when making a Lyndsey Feltham said she did not want to cut the amount of benefits that families could get.
She said: "The regulations introduce an earnings level above which a young person in education is better off while having 100% of their income disregarded and no longer being eligible for components. "They are essentially not counted on the claim other than for the purposes of being awarded a bedroom."
Additional changes to the legislation would include clearly defining what counted as a family unit to help with processing claims more accurately and providing flexibility to choose whether a young worker is counted as part of the household or not, officials a young adult under the age of 25 is in full-time education and working, their earnings would not reduce benefits - in the aim to encourage students to work without penalising the household, the proposition added: "This will continue to ensure young students and their parents are better off during any period in which the young person is working and fully align the law with the current and future administration of income support claims."The draft amendment said there would be "no additional financial or staffing implications" for the government as a result of the earliest the proposals can be debated is 9 September.
