Temporary staff employed to clear population law backlog
TEMPORARY staff are being brought in to help cope with a backlog of employment and residency applications.
The new population management regime came into force on 3 April, but since then the States has struggled to deliver on promises that the application process would be quicker than the old regime.
There are currently 671 outstanding applications made under the old housing law.
In addition, there are 391 employment-related and 422 non employment-related applications awaiting processing under the new law.
Esther Ingrouille, administrator of Population Management, said the team has been focusing on trying to clear the backlog of legacy applications, but different factors had made this a slower-than-expected process.
'It is not unusual at this time of year for us to have between 1,000 and 1,500 applications outstanding,' she said.
'But what is different to usual is the additional time it is taking us to process the old applications, which continues to have an impact on overall processing times.'
She said they were having to process legacy applications made under a complicated housing control law, while converting them to fit into a new law designed for the modern era.
